The Many Worlds Of RWBY
by jttaylorbat
Summary: This story takes place during RWBY Volume 4. Though yet again all orginale charaters and story. This one is focused on Azure (now an adult in this story) and Silvia. A friend, former team mate, rival, and sometimes romantic partner.
1. Chapter 1 The Training

Two fighters stand apart in the middle of the forest. Spinning his long blue and orange sword in one hand while the other hand loosely holds his shield bearing the his emblem, Azure passes back in front 10 feet from Silvia

"Come on Silvia, you can do better!" Silvia skids back, flipping her ponytail and hair back away from her face. In her other hand is her claymore sword, glowing red from the fire dust at the bottom of its hilt

"You think I'm not trying?" She shoots back.

"Oh I do, that's the problem" Azure levels his sword at her, arm above his head and held back, he raises his shield just under his nose, his right foot slides back ready. She shakes her head, bringing up her sword to her right side, feet readjusting "My hardest is never enough for you Azure." Shaking his head he thinks to himself

"Hell my hardest isn't enough for me" then out loud "Let's change that uh?" He says to her. "How so?" She asks  
"Fighting, duh. Come on get your head out of your ass Silvia," he laughs out. Chuckling she rolls her eyes.

"I think that's the first time I've ever heard you say that."  
"Heh probably. I like it though. Might use it again," he responds.  
"You won't be saying it again after I beat your ass!" She charges, sword at the ready.

"Alrighty then," he quips. He raises his shield and blocks her strike, then swings at her unarmed side, Silvia gets scraped just as she gets out of its path, she counter attacks by swinging upward. Azure is forced to dodge by doing a backflip, when he lands he throws his shield like a freeze-be at her. A thin blue tether can just barely be seen connecting it to him. She bends down just in the nick of time and slices up with the sword at the tether cutting it. The shield hits a tree and stays there. While Silvia was cutting the tether Azure had charged. He slices down at her sword hand with his own sword. she brings up her sword just in time to block it, locking their blades together. Using his far superior height Azure pushes her down to a knee, wincing Silvia grits her teeth. When she's on one knee Azure smiles, he suddenly lets up taking a step back removing the force from her causing her to fall forward a bit, as she falls forward Azure kicks out at her face, she's just able to dodge and roll back into a standing position. Taking a step back as well, Azure contemplates for a second then throws his sword down in front of him. It sticks straight out of the ground hilt up between them

"What's your move Silvia?" She stands up, looking from the sword to him in deep thought. Then, quickly, she takes the sword in her free hand. Azure smiles "Good. Well," he puts more distance between them "Come on then."

She smirks, then charges, both swords at both her sides, Azure runs forward as well, but jumps just as she would swing at him, flipping over her. Landing he uses his semblance to wrap a glowing rope around her ankles and tugs causing her to fall. He raises both hands one to the shield and one at the sword in her hand, magnets activate in his gloves pulling the weapons to him. The shield flies into his hand but she manages to hold onto the sword.

"Hm fine," He says as he releases the pull "Keep it. Let's see you use it against its partner," raises the shield up. She sheathes her own sword

"I only need to use that" He shakes his head

"You're so trusting."

"Oh you know me."

"I do" then, thinking to himself "I really do." Silvia charges and Azure raises the shield to block, but for some reason the sword and shield can't connect, behind the shield Azure smirks. In response she jumps up and tries to bring it down harder. Holding the shield in front of the sword, the blow gets sent away again

"Sorry Silvia. They're both built with the same magnetic sides. They'll never hit each other. No matter how hard you try." Azure laughs.

"God dammit," she curses.

"Never trust something given to by your enemy," he laughs. She brushes off dirt as she stands up

"Hard to trust someone who never opens up."

"Ouch that hurts. I open up," Then he moves back and slides the shield onto his back like a backpack. Stands ready for her to attack. She tosses the sword at his feet with a clang.

"You can count how many times you opened up on one hand." Azure uses the magnets in the glove to bring it to his hand. Then he sheaths it as well, silent. "Are you just gonna ignore that fact?" she asks.

"Mmmm probably. Sounds better than confronting it," he responds. "Sometimes confronting is better than bottling it up. I know." Silvia steps closer to him and he brings his hands up, eyes shift "So do I" he says and readies himself "Maybe some other time." Silvia pulls down on her black gloves, flexing the fingers.

"When's soon? When you leave again?" Azure clenches his teeth at that

"Oh come on now," he sighs.

"You know I'm right." She says.

"Maybe you're right. But is that really the point right now?"

"Trying to ignore it, like always." She replies, scoffing. Azure frowns slightly "Silvia I don't need to open up right now, I'm fine!" He laughs for emphasis and she crosses her arms. "You really think you're gonna fool me again?"

"Fool you? Again? Oh you mean with the sword and shield thing. Probably I always end up tricking you when we spar." He replies smirking.

"No, I mean with you masking your emotions!" She Jabs her finger at his chest.

"It's not important right now, we have to be ready, there's worse things out there right now than the Grimm." For the first time today there's something that resembles seriousness on his face."Like what?

""Oh you know, Noir again. Your brother. That crazy shadow guy. The shifter guy." He says then muttering "there's a lot of bad guys wow""Everything's coming back to haunt us, huh?"

"Mm yea."

"So right now it's not important that I'm a little sad or whatever, we have to be ready Silvia." He looks into her eyes Silvia forces herself to meet his eyes, and she immediately softens. "You're right," she says after a few moments of smiles and backs away putting 10 feet between them "Of course I am. Now if you can beat me I'll give you a cookie."

"What's so special about a cookie?"

"What's so special abo- it's a cookie Silvia! The heck is wrong with you?" He shakes his head

"Just not sweet enough for me." She smirks with a shrug.

"Wow. Spent my whole life fighting monsters and the real monster has been you this whole time."

"How about we change up the deal a bit?" She asks, unsheathing her sword and twirling it.

"Oh? How so?" He asks. "If I win," she points her sword at him. "you go on a date with me."Silvia smiles. "Mm alright fine." Azure moves arms behind back and smiles "Come on then. Earn your date."

She replies with a charge, boosting up the power in her fire dust. The sword lights up a bright red. Azure spins around using the shield on his back to block the blow, then continues to spin forcing her past him, then he draws the sword and slashes at her exposed back. She falls back, wincing as she stands back up. She drives her sword into the ground, causing a spire of fire to break the earth and propels itself towards him. He makes a hovering platform and jumps on it "It's over Silvia! I have the high ground!" Silvia looks up, her eyes glinting from the fire. "Oh, hell it isn't." She sheathes her sword, pulling a charm off of her bracelet. Suddenly, it transforms into her bow and arrow. She loads a grappling hook arrow and fires onto the platform."Ah so that's why Anakin lost. He didn't watch the Avengers," he jokes some more then slashes to cut the rope of the grappling hook. She's already halfway up by then. She grabs the end of the slashed rope, propelling her energy into swinging up on top of the platform. "Miss me?"

"What do you think?" He slashes at her while he speaks. She brings up her metal bow to block it, pushing back. She gives a single shove before sweeping out his feet from under him. As he falls the platform suddenly disappears giving him room to recover mid air and land safely using a complex back flip. Silvia loads an arrow mid air and fires at a tree trunk, reeling her in before she can get to the ground. Azure looks over at her thinking, then grabs his shield off his back. She yanks the arrow out of the trunk, sticking back in her quiver."You going to shoot me? I dare you to," he smiles. 'What does he have planned?' She thinks to herself. Her eyes narrow as she grips an arrow and loads it."If you can hit me once you can hit Noir. Think about it like that," She nods slightly, before turning invisible with her semblance."Mm. Forgot she could do that." He presses a button on the shield. No visible change is heard or seen. She lowers herself down to the ground, lightly pressing down with her feet. She paces herself to an uncovered part of his body and launches her arrow. The shield moves and his arm follows and blocks it shattering the point on contact. Her bow lowers as shock registers. 'Clever, Azure.'He turns looking for signs of movement. She stays invisible, thinking of a plan. She then grabs three arrows, launching them in quick succession of one another. He registers the movement, the shield already moving to block, the shield gets one he slashes one in half and the third dings off his shoulder. "Hey you got me, kinda." She smirks, bursting into a run while doing the same method. This time ready for it, not one lands, all being cut out of the air. "The only problem is it didn't do damage." She grits her teeth, dropping the charade.

"How do you expect me to get a shot in?"

"I don't, however you hit me with a weapon. Hasn't happened in a while so that's good. Silvia you can't always expect results. Your strategy is wonderful and it worked. Once. But when it stopped working you still kept trying, instead of coming up with something new." She runs through ideas in her head, converting her bow back to a charm on her bracelet. She unsheathes her sword, plugging in an ice crystal.

"There we go!" She charges it up, launching an ice blast at the shield. It gets knocked away and he smiles backing up. Some ice crystals start forming on the shield.

"Freezing my shield uh? Good idea" It spreads to the front and back of the shield, holding it in place. She runs in with her sword, dropping her semblance at the last second. Azure leans back and blocks it. Silvia pushes against him, the sword starting to frost over. Using one hand he holds the sword in place, he pulls out a knife with the other and presses it against her back

"Hello there," he smiles. She feels the cold point poke against her back, and she stops, glaring at him. Shrugs with his face "What can I say, it works"

"Do you always end battles like this?" Azure smiles knowing what she is referring to. In their very first sparing match 5 years ago that's how he beat her then as well. "This is only the second time!" She chuckles.

"Still." She unplugs the dust shard and the glow disappears, leaving her eyes their dull grey color. She sheathes her sword, tucking the shard into her quiver. "Guess you won that one."

"I guess so, but you did good soooo, I'll pick you up around 7?" Silvia looks up at him at surprise.

"But I lost."

"You have too strict a definition of loosing and winning Silvia. It's not always about who beats the other. Honestly you did better, thought outside the box. Bettered yourself as a fighter." A faint blush coats her face. "You better be one time, Blue."

"I'm always very punctual." He says smiling.

 _Author's Note: Yes a new story. Unlike my other one this is set right in line with the show. It takes place in Vale during the rebuild. Silvia is a character a friend of mine made and she's also helping me write this._


	2. Chapter 2 The Beginning

Silvia is in her living room, legs crossed on the couch. In front of her is a faint glow emanating from a book on the table in front of her, her lips muttering a spell. Azure is coming down the street towards her place. The book releases a small strand of magical energy that floats above her. From the street he sees the glowing in her window.

"Uh?" In her room Silvia extends her hand, the strand forming an oval in front of her, her hand closes causing the strand to close the oval. It glows brighter, showing her reflection. Azure runs over and takes his key out watching closely. Her muttering stops, peering back at her reflection, he opens the door and goes in

"Silvia?" He calls.

"In here," she replies.  
"What is going on up there?" He says heading up.

"Nothing. Just some stuff." She moves her hand in a circle, the reflection shifting into a vision of something not within the room.

"Stuff?" He asks "It looks like a weird rave." Silva chuckles.

"Yeah, cause I'm throwing a party." In the vision it shows a Vale that isn't damaged by the events of Grimm. Azure gets to her room and peaks in

"Looking at a dream or something?"

"Kind of. Come here." She pats the seat next to her, still looking into the vision. He comes over and sits down watching. In the oval, the vision scans over Vale as the way it was before the Grimm attack. Everyone seems to be at peace.

"Uh looks nice, what is it?"

"An alternate world. One where the Grimm attack never happened. The world is still sane."

"Sane? Somehow I doubt that. No world is sane," he mutters. She glances at him.

"I mean a world that isn't like ours, where everyone lives in constant fear and fights for constant survival."

"Mm well lucky them. Why look at them?" Silvia shrugs.

"I don't know. I'm just tired of seeing despair every time I look out the window."

"Yea, yea I get that," he sighs "where are we?"

"Mm good question. Well can we look?"

"Yeah." She extends her hand and swipes, the vision focusing in on Azure. He stands looking very much like he does now expect he's in Mistral, talking into an ear piece. "Eh I'll be fine don't worry... I'll be quick... milk? Really? I'm about to do a job and you want milk? Uh? I don't care about eating for two milk isn't food... fine. I'll be back soon." He laughs then jumps down into a house. "Hi so yea, it's death time. Oh and let's make this quick, i have places to be" A woman's voice can be heard "yea right!" Then a gunshot and Azure laughing. Silvia narrows her eyes. "Eating for two?"

"Hell if I know." She realizes the meaning behind the phrase.

"Oh. Azure got a special lady."

"Uh? What do you mean?" Azure has literally no idea what she means. She nudges him, laughing.

"Your girl is pregnant."

"Oh. Well that's definitely not what I expected." Surprised "Wait am I happy then?"

"I believe so."

"Wow. What about you?" He asks.

"I don't know. Let's check." She swipes her hand again. This time, Silvia is in a new home, much more furnished and modern. She faces away from the camera, preparing some food. When she turns around, her stomach is bulging out more than usual.

"Really wish I had some milk right about now. But someone had to go on a mission." She rubs the stomach. "Sorry, baby. I'll get you some as soon as he gets home."

"Hey look you want milk too, funny... wait," he says slowly Silvia has her face covered with one of her hands, hiding a massive blush.

"Wow we are having a baby!" Her blush deepens, as she starts laughing.

"What a world." He laughs. She rests her head on the couch, her laughter dying down.

"Now that's embarrassing."

"Ha well just a bit," The alternate Silvia picks up a photo, smiles, then places it down. When she passes, they see it's a photo of Azure and Silvia in wedding attire, kissing.

"Married as well, this world. It's peaceful," Azure mutters

"Yeah." She chuckles, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Are they all like this?" He asks

"I don't know. You wanna check another one?"

"Yea sure lets do it," he says. She smiles and extends her hand like a remote. It statics out before focusing in on another Vale, this time more like a world of the future. "Looks like we're really advanced. Check out the robots." Robots far more advanced than the current ones patrol the streets. "Let's check out you."

"Yea alright lets find me," Azure mutters. The picture changes to a dark room the only sound is slow breathing and the slight clink of chains. Then suddenly the entire room is lit up showing what the chains are for. Azure is being held there, dangling 10 feet above the ground expect instead of ground the floor is covered in spikes. The walls have turrets in every corner pointed straight at him. Silvia sits up.

"What the hell?"

"Hello that's no good," says Azure.  
In the other world voices can be heard.

"Ah hello Mr. Požar, how are you liking your day?" The voice is female.

"Oh you know. I'm just hanging around," the other world Azure jokes.

"Mm jokes again I see. You'll be glad to know the rest of your team has been captured and... eliminated by Atlas forces." The women tells him. A frown passes over his face then he laughs.

"So I guess the bell tolls for me now hm?"

"I can't watch this." Silvia says going to switch to herself, but it doesn't move. "What's going on?"

"I dunno, is the tv broken?" Azure half jokes.

"I-I don't know. I never tried this before." She goes to do it again but the oval ring starts to go staticky. In the oval the spikes are lowered and heavily armed troops enter along with the women.

"Okay well what does the book say?"

"Uh, let me check." She goes to check the book. She flips a page, but her face goes blank. "There's nothing."

"Alright well now what? Other me's about to bite the big weanie!" He's slowly being lowered down, he is surrounded by soldiers. The image is to hard to make out now. "Alright then, maybe it'll go away by itself!" Instead the oval grows in size and starts sucking in Silvia.

"Azure!" She screams reaching for him. "Uh! Silvia!" He calls reaching for her as well, but he misses and she gets sucked in. Azure stands for a moment silent. Finally though he makes up his mind "Fuck it," he says to himself and jumps in after her.


	3. Chapter 3 Silvia's Turn

The portal closes right after he jumps in, the room returning to its original state. Silvia spins in the portal, skidding face first into a darkened room. Silvia slowly stands up, brushing herself off. The pain from the fall flooding her senses, leaving a throbbing sensation on her body.  
"Azure?" She asks the darkness, only for no reply. Shaking, she lifts her hand to bring up a light spell. A small orb of light hovers in her hand, revealing a door and a chair and table. Each made of a cold metal that matched the temperature of the room. Lowering her hand, she slowly turned the doorknob, pulling the door out just enough so she could peep her head through. Silvia squinted as her eyes adjusted to the brightly lit hallway, only to find no one outside. She extinguished the light as she closed the door behind her.  
"Where the hell am I?" She asked herself. She looked up and down the hallway one last time before taking a left, starting at a sprint. Her heart ran a mile a minute, just like her thoughts. The last thing she remembered was being with Azure and looking at an alternate universe. That's when the spell went crazy.  
Was that what this was? The futuristic universe that she had peered into? There was only one way to find out.  
She reached a crossroads, where a sign was located. On it showed a layout of the floor, and where she was in location to the building. Labeled at the side were the rooms and who was in them. Silvia stopped to catch her breath, reading the sign. Just as she was tracing the route from which she came with her finger, she heard footsteps approaching. Silvia frantically looked around for a place to hide, but no rooms were in sight. The echoing of the footsteps grew louder, and so was the pounding of her heart against her chest. Suddenly, she remembered her semblance and went invisible, just as the officials walked by. They were both in lab coats, glasses sported on the bridges of their noses.  
"Did you hear about A-704?" The brunette male asked.  
"No, what about him?" His comrade asked back.  
"He's less cooperative than usual. His team was captured and eliminated, as well."  
"About time. They were vigilantes who needed to be put down."  
Silvia's head popped up at the mention of the team. One of the ladies in the vision had said that about Azure. She carefully followed them.  
"Agreed. I think the boss made the decision to put him down as well."  
The blonde laughed. "Why? He could give us some well needed information."  
"The boss has all the information she needs. Plus, she has her ways of getting it."  
Silvia tightened her hands into fists. She needed to know where he was. Using her semblance to her advantage, she snuck up behind the blonde.  
"She's crazy. I would never be able to go into those splinter cells and get that info like she does. I don't know ho-" He stopped mid-sentence, gasping for air.  
"Are you okay?" The brunette faced him, out of concern.  
Silvia's semblance dropped just as the blonde lost consciousness, slumping to the floor.  
"How'd you get in here? Securi-" He was intercepted by Silvia's punch to the chest, making him lose his breath. She pushed him against the wall, arm propped against his throat.  
"Tell me where this patient is," she commands quietly.  
"H-He's in room 598. Please don't hurt me," He pleaded.  
"Oh, I won't." She backed away, letting him regain his breath. Right as he turned to run away, she used a spell to knock him out. He barely made it to the floor before Silvia caught him. She dragged both of them into a nearby room and locked it from the inside. Shrugging the stolen lab coat on her body and pushing the rim of the glasses up the bridge of her nose, she hurried back to the map to locate Room 598. Once she found it, Silvia hurried to the nearest staircase and bolted up.  
What had happened to this world's Azure? Did he get caught committing some heinous crimes similar to that of her Azure's?  
Where was her Azure, anyway? That is, if she could call him her's. Her mind flashed back to when the portal had sucked her in. He tried to help her, only when she called out for help. Did he jump in after her? Or was he still at her apartment, trying to find a way to reverse the spell? Most likely the latter, she thought.  
Azure was unorthodox, to say the least. One minute, he'd be laughing about his own jokes. The next, he'd be dead serious about a mission he would be going on. When they had dated, and even now he was prosaic. But things changed. He left her, causing her emotional strife for months. Four years later and he was still the same guy, just more reclusive. He always hid his emotions, and only once had he revealed to her his true emotions, if she could call it that. He could read her like an open book, but Silvia couldn't even skim his opening statement. Did he jump in after her? Would Azure, the somewhat candid, yet unhinged assassin, come after her, just another girl in his life?  
Silvia knew the answer, and it was no. Azure never risked his life for anyone, that she was certain about. Sure, he'd give his life for a cause he believed in. But to lay down the life he had little faith in for someone who may or may not have meant something to him was another story. After all the drama they'd been through, she knew he wouldn't trust her again, let alone try to save her life.  
Silvia reached the top of the steps, rushing into floor 5. She scanned the map at the top of the steps and kept mental track of where she was before marching her way to the room. Even if he was in another universe, and even if he still wanted nothing to do with her, Silvia would still save him. Every single time.  
She reached the end of a dimly lit hallway, with the numbers 598 embellished in a polished silver. Taking a breath that didn't calm her down in the slightest, she carefully opened the door and slipped inside.  
In front of her was a girl, probably the one from the vision, with three other assistants. Silvia activated her semblance, sneaking towards the glass wall in the front of the room. When she got there, she had to do everything she could to stop herself from screaming his name.


	4. Chapter 4 Azure's Turn

Damn it. Damn it all. That was all Azure was thinking. Crouched in an alleyway just a few feet from a crowded street. Assuming this is that alternate world Silvia and him were looking at, he was in a lot of danger. After all here he was in prison, meaning he couldn't move freely in the open. Looking up the the rooftops above he sighed and started climbing. He hated this, he should've known better than to mess with unknown magic. Getting to the top of the shorter building he looked around. There wasn't a lot to do. He needed information and fast. He looked around and walked towards the edge of the building he was on, looking down he sees he's on an apartment building, Azure scales down until he reaches a window. Looking around he creates a hammer with his semblance and smashes it in. Azure jumps inside and immediately spots the computer in the corner of the small crowded room. Moving to it he leans over and pulls up the search engine and searches himself first. According to the search his life followed a nearly identical path, expect he never went to school. That appears to be the problem, eventually he bit off more than he could chew and was overwhelmed by pure numbers. Interesting, Azure stood straight and was about to leave when he heard a gasp.

"What are you doing," it was a woman early 20s. Thinking quick Azure raises his hands.

"Nothing. I'll just go now," he says scooting to the window, but the lady grabs at a table near the door and pulls out a gun. Azure stops moving when she points it at him, sighing.

"Really?" He asks her.

"I know who you are, it was all over the news when you were caught. I'll turn you back in!" She tells him.

"I'm not who you think I am," Azure counters, but she doesn't listen, keeping the gun pointed at his chest, it shakes slightly in her hand. Sighing again he charges making a shield with his semblance reflecting her attempts to shoot him, reaching her he grabs the gun twisting it out of her hand and hits her on the head with it, and knocks her out quickly. Azure takes her scroll from her pocket and drops her body to the floor. Azure moves to the window knowing it won't be long till the place is swarmed with law enforcement, he jumps out it and starts running from rooftop to rooftop. As he runs he pulls out the scroll and finds the address of the prison, knowing Silvia would head there. Always trying to save him, it's not even him this time but some alternate world version. Yet she'll die to save him. Fool.

After about 30 minutes Azure arrives at the prison. Looking around he spots a place for entry. He jumps down and lands near the rear of the prison. There's a huge wall standing there, impossible to climb and even if he could there's barbed wire at the top. Deciding that stealth will waste his time and be to difficult. Silvia could be killed in the time it would take him to sneak inside. Furthermore drawing as much attention to himself would take away attention from her.

Making up his mind he backs up and pulls out four knives, two in each hand, he pauses then throws all four in quick succession at the same spot they all explode on contact making huge cracks in the wall. But it doesn't break. Sirens go off inside, sighing Azure pulls out his gun then makes a giant battering ram with his semblance and smashes it into the wall until a hole large enough for him to enter appears. Jumping through it he sprints across the open field. On the other end officers were coming towards him.

"Son of a bitch," he mutters "Guess I'm already in jail." He raises his gun as he runs and starts firing on the approaching officers taking them out one by one. Taking a life like this is second nature to him at this point. There had been a time when he had tried to be better, yet he knew now that wouldn't work. He'd learned.

Finally he hits the main building and busts into through the door. An officer tries to attack from the side but gets a knife in the eye for his efforts. Looking around he slips into the shadows moving quietly and quickly. The main halls are now filled with heavily armed officials. After searching randomly for a while he stumbles onto the control room. Forcing the door open he enters and quickly kicks the first person who comes at him then swipes the next one's feet out from under him and drops the end of his gun on his head knocking him out as well. Then he goes and looks at the computers screens, they show the camera footage of what's happening in the whole building. He locates the other Azure's cell on the screens and figures out how to get there. Azure frowns slightly, he can't decide how to proceed. He's already dropped a lot of bodies what's a few more? However he can't be sure what waits inside the room and it'd be better to be in top shape for whatever that is. Deciding Azure presses a button on the panel, it alerts the guards that the intruder has been located and sends them all to go capture him, unfortunately for them they'd be headed in the wrong direction. Smiling Azure leaves the room and quickly makes his way to the door leading to the cell. He smiles completely calm. The chances of Silvia being here are high. Here's hoping she's still alright. He reaches behind him and pulls out two knives and places them carefully along the door frame. Then, working quickly, sets up a trigger, it'll go off when he wants it to, this will now giving them, or just himself, a way out. Then opening the door he enters, the first thing he sees is the lady and her three assistance, he looks around and sees a shadow with no body. Silvia. Smiling he decides to distract them giving her an out. Leaning against the wall he calls to them.

"Honestly this place is way too easy to break into, you should probably look into that."


	5. Chapter 5 The Other World

_Authors note: finally got this chapter and the next in one piece. However I think there may be some major spacing, grammatical, and overall setup problems. I can't seem to fix them. I'm sorry about them if there is._

 **CHASE PART 5**

Silvia turned at the sound of a familiar voice. 'It couldn't be,' she thought. But yet here Azure was, her Azure, in the flesh. Silvia wasn't the only one to react. The women and her assistants did as well "What the hell? How did-" she cuts off speaking and looks back and forth.Laughing Azure replies "I wouldn't think about it too much if I were you, might hurt." Then he glances at where Silvia is.

'How does he? Shadow!' She looks down at her own shadow, in shock. Why hadn't she noticed it earlier? She quickly melted into the shadows of the room while they were distracted.

Azure walks to the center of the room so the don't notice the bodiless shadow "Aren't you going to stop me? Detain me? Or do you know it's pointless?" Azure taunts. The four of them look at each other before finally

"It's not actually you, you're in there about to be put down. For good." The women responds. Silvia sneaks to the door, tapping him on his shoulder before standing in the doorway.

"You know you may be right abo-" Azure was interrupted by screaming from where the other Azure was.

"The hell is happening now?!" Screamed the lady.

"We need to save him," Silvia whispered to Azure, trying to get a look at what was going on in the cell.

"Save him?" He muttered back as the others ran off "We should leave now." Silvia dropped her semblance as soon as they left, clearly tired out.

"You wouldn't want to save yourself if you were in that situation?"

"This- this isn't our world" he argues.

"I know but it's you!" She pointed to the window, revealing a screaming Azure. He looks at her in the eyes for a second. Of course she would want to save him, even if it wasn't him.

"Fine. What do you want me to do." That simple gesture was all she needed.

"Use the air vents to get in. I'll try to buy some time in here by delaying the spikes and such. You do you." She smirked.

"Couldn't help yourself uh?" He jokes then goes to the air vent pops it off, winks, and climbs in. She rolls her eyes as she went to the control panel and started working her magic. Azure gets to the room holding the other Azure. The lady seemed to be yelling at him. Azure looked around thinking hard. Could he actually just bust in. The other Azure would probably be confused, but two of him. Heh it'd be fine. He busts the grate off and jumps in. "Heyo!"

"You again?" The women shrieks.

"Me?" Azure asks then looks at the alt. Azure "You?"

"Me? Nah you!" Alt. Azure responded.

"Wow me! I can't believe it. It's me!"

"I can't believe it either I love you!"

"Hey I love me to!"

"Stop it!" She finally screams pointing at the two Azures.

"Fiiiiinne." They say in unison. Silvia catches some of the discussion and sighs. "Same old Azure," she says to herself. The spikes stop, and the chains that once held Alternate World Azure are now broken. He lands and stands causing the four people to back up. Azure walks over to Alt. Azure and hands him a knife "Keep the killing to a minimum please. Silvia doesn't approve." Azure mutters to him.

"Fine, I don't know who that is, but you're getting me out so I'll deal."Silvia opens up a hatch at the top of the cell. "Thought you'd might need this. I'll meet you on the roof." She enters a code that will stop anyone from overriding the system and bolts to the doors. "Silvia?" Alt. Azure asks."Yup."Together the two Azures move swiftly together. As though they spent their whole life training together. Fighting and knocking back the guards they didn't run into any trouble the whole way. They stop at the roof door smiling. "Who are you?" Asks Alt. Azure."Ha I'm you duh." Azure opens the door and go onto the roof.Silvia bolts up the stairs, her semblance on full blast with all the commotion going on. By the time she gets to the roof door, she can barely stand. Alt. Azure catches her

"Hey there," he smiles charmingly at her Azure stands in the back and rolls his eyes. She weakly looks up at the face she knew for years, but yet felt so strange.

"Thank you," she managed out."Anytime," he moves so she's standing straighter "What's the plan?" He asks. Silvia forces herself up.

"Use your semblance to get us out of here. I can't do much without my weapons or because of my current state.""Uh? Pretty sure breathing underwater is literally useless right now," he laughs, in the back Azure sighs and mutters.

"Just end me please." She glares daggers at Azure. "Just make a platform that can float us to another building.""I can't!" Alt. Azure says.Popping out from behind.

"Got it boss!" He fake salutes and forms a platform.

"Thank you, my Azure." She pats her Azure on the shoulder and gets on the platform. "You coming?" They both jump on."Not fair. This is way more useful." He mumbles as the platform starts moving.

"Silvia how are we getting back?" She hesitates on the answer, biting her lip. "I... don't know," she finally says, slowly. Sighing Azure lands the platform and it disperses.

"Alright, well you," points at Alt. Azure "can do whatever you want. We have to do our own thing." Alt. Azure looks between them for a second then shrugs and runs off winking at Silvia as he leaves. Silvia fights back a blush, failing as she turns back to Azure.

"I'm sorry. I only know the first few lines. The rest is blurry.""Mm well then, let's try our best then." He says shrugging.

"The only way I can get the spell is if I have the spell book. You didn't bring Paige with, did you?""Uh noo. Any ideas on where we could find one?""The only way we can is if we find me."

"Well let's track you then.""Easier said than done," she mutters to herself. She finds the door of the roof that they had landed on and started down the steps.

"Mm. True." He says to himself before looking around the roof then following her down.

"How'd you track the other you down?" She asked, her strength coming back to her.

"The internet of course," he told her tossing the scroll over to her. She catches it, scrolling down the feed.

"This world's you has some reputation.""Heh I can't seem to help myself uh?" She chuckles softly.

"So it seems." She tosses back his scroll as they reach the bottom of the stairwell.

"Did you look for you?" He asks catching it.

"Yeah. And I'm a bit confused." She nudges open the door to the streets with her shoulder.

"How so?" Following looking around. This world didn't suit Azure. He didn't like it at all.

"It said I'm still with my tribe in Atlas." She faces him.

"Alright nice. Well let's head out. We'll have to move carefully through," Azure tells her. It's because of him they have to move this way.

"I know." She says, before starting off in the direction of a shuttle port. Following he glances back at the prison, shrugs and sets off his explosives. Some more shouts can be heard as they run off. She fights back a laugh. Typical Azure. She keeps moving forward, not looking back. After a few minutes of running they arrive at the port. Azure looks around then jumps down near a shuttle. Silvia glides down next to him.

"Thank god it's empty.""Mhm," he barely mumbles watching carefully before opening the hatch door. "Get inside," he tells her. She obeys wordless, slipping inside. Azure glances to each side, a serious look on his face, then turns to get in the shuttle his expression changing to a smile

"Hello passengers this is your pilot speaking. Please keep your seat belts buckled while the seatbelt light is on." He starts joking getting in and sitting down "there may be some turbulence as people may be trying to kill us. Please don't worry about it. I'm very experienced in the not dying." Azure starts the engine and it starts warming up. Silvia rolls her eyes, a smirk on her lips.

"Thanks, Captain." He salutes her and takes the controls, Azure starts pushing the shuttle forward taking off. As soon as they started moving out sirens went off in the port.

"Ahh good times." He continues flying the shuttle, shifting it to its highest speed.

"We'll be fine. We have a head start. Unless they bring-" several jets take flight from the port following them "jets. Yea figured." Silvia looks down in thought, then smiles.

"I've got an idea." She faces the back of the shuttle, muttering an incantation she memorized from her spell book. A white light rose from her hands, surrounding the shuttle.

"Oh what are you doing?"

"Giving us some cloaking," She replies, turning and walking back to his side.

"Ah got it. That should do it. Maybe."

"I think it should." Chuckling to himself Azure guides the plane forward. The jets fly over head looking for them with no success. Silvia looks out at the sky around them, almost lost in thought. Azure glances over but doesn't say anything. Turning his attention back to the flight he frowns and continues to fly until they get there. Thoughts kept turning in her head, keeping her in a trance, even when they land in Atlas. She blinks rapidly.

"Oh. We're here.""Yup, we should hurry to. Not a fan of this place. Nothing feels right.""Tell me about it." She opens the hatch door and clears her throat. "Excuse me passengers, we have arrived at our destination. Please disembark the ride. Don't forget your belongings, and take small children by the hand."

"Ha got it." Azure grabs her hand "it's time to go now, don't argue okay?" He jokes putting on a voice similar to a mom talking to her kid. Silvia fights back a smile, instead making a pouty face.

"Okay, mama."

"Good!" He gets out and looks towards where Silvia's camp is and stops. "If you keep listening I'll get you- What the?" The tribal village is full of people, with masks and facial paint slathered on their bodies. Even the little kids have masks of a purple demon, chasing each other around. The happy aura from Silvia's childhood was gone, replaced with somber and dark tones. Silvia pushes him to a bush, which she ducks behind as well. Only after a few moments of breathing to calm herself does she peak back out.

"Alright so it's different to. Could've guessed. What's that purple demon thing?" Azure said."Some creature from our myths," she explains. "Similar to what we call Grimm."

"Interesting. Creepy stuff. How do we get in?""I don't know." Her voice shakes a bit as she speaks. Her nails dig into the palm of her hand.

"Okay then. We go in unseen. The only way. Let me talk if we're seen."

"Azure," she says softly. "I don't think I can go in there.""Why not?""I'm scared," she admits after some hesitation. Azure looks at her for a long moment. Of course how could he have not seen it before. Azure sighs.

"Alright that's alright. I'll grab it. Tell me where it is, okay?""No, I'm going with you." She meets his eyes. "I need to get rid of this fear once and for all." He stands up straight."Are you sure?" Silvia follows up, trying to match his stature. "I'm as sure as I've ever been.""Let's hurry then," he says smiling."Got it. I'll cover the both of us. Just follow me." Her smile strengthens before pushing away the bushes that they hid behind. Azure nods and follows her keeping low. Her purple aura lights up around her and projects itself onto Azure as they maneuver around the people of the village. Silvia glances over at Azure, only to be staring at him. The purple aura surrounding him made his skin glow like a pearl in the sun. She shook her head, forcing herself from thinking about him. A girl with dark kept hair, dressed black in ceremonial robes that cover every inch of her body. Although she is young, her beauty is covered by a mask of white tribal paint. Her bare feet and hands can be seen from the hems of the robe. Azure see her and stops taping Silvia's shoulder and points. "Leader." He whispers. Silvia gives him and follows his finger. Her heart stops for a second, her breathing hitched. "I-I stayed." She said this as though she didn't really believe it until now.

The other Silvia has a kid approach her. She smiles and crouches down, talking with him. Azure thinks then slips towards her.

"Azure what the hell do you think you're doing?" She tries to reach out and stop him.

"It'll be fine. She can't see me." He whispers back. Her hand lowers a bit.

"I'll cover you with all I can." He slips closure so he can hear. Looking around for where she came from while he does. Silvia slips closer so it won't cause much of a strain on her.

The other Silvia pats the kid on the head and starts to head back to a tent that is larger than the others. Azure follows close behind her watching carefully. Silvia feels a bead of sweat falling from her forehead, and she immediately wiped it off. The other world Silvia ducks inside.

"Better get the ritual ready. Where are my herbs?" She starts to look around the room. Azure smiles and goes inside as well and starts looking around for the book careful to not make any noise. Silvia heads to a cabinet, opening it up. She sees the book and smiles. She places it off to the side and starts scavenging for the herbs. He waits until neither of them are looking and picks it up. The book turns invisible with him. Azure starts walking to the exit, Silvia, outside the tent, motions for him to hurry up, her face showing exhaustion. He nods understanding and gets out

"let's move," he mutters. Moving faster now they have the book.

"Don't have to tell me twice." Silvia rushes out behind him.The other Silvia turns around, to find the book gone. "Didn't I just place it here?" She pops her head out of the tent and looks. Azure glances back as he runs seeing the other Silvia looking out. He chuckles and keeps moving. The other Silvia senses something is not right, and mutters a spell under her breath. Then, the semblance around Silvia breaks. "Crap..." she stumbles forward. Azure immediately covers Silvia dropping the book into her hands.

"Run, I'll stall them." He tells her.

"What?" The books heavier than she remembered.

"Go!" Silvia stumbled a bit as she hurried out into the woods.The other Silvia approaches him. "Who are you? I don't recognize you from my people.""Probably cuz I'm not from your people."

"Where are you from then?" Her voice getting darker.

"Oh here and there. Mostly there. Rarely here and sometimes from even over yonder." Her eyes narrow as she steps closer to him.

"You're not from around here, are you?""No like I said, I'm from there," Azure points in two different directions. She sighs.

"Why are you in my village?""Sighting seeing. Heard this was a great place to really get in touch with your inner self...dude." He smiles. She takes a menacingly close step towards him.

"My people are having a celebration. The last thing we need is an outsider coming in and ruining it for everyone.""Magic right? Love magic. Ever read Harry Potter?" She raises an eyebrow."This magic you speak of is nothing in comparison to real magic." Silvia raises her hand, a dark orb floating above her hand.

"Ohhh. Nice. Like this," holds out his own hand and a flame appears in it. she stumbles back in surprise. "What magic have you studied under?""Oh I got this book. It's lit," he says glancing back and not seeing his Silvia. "It talks.""Talks? Like a spell book?" Her orb seems to get darker.

"Nah a cookbook. Of course a spell book silly," then Azure stops talking, having forgot she may still have that book in this world. "Fuck," he thinks. A scowl forms on her face.

"So you stole mine, to splurge our secrets to the rest of the world!""Nah it's mine. She goes by Paige. You have one to? Sweet. You think they're related?" He jokes."Give me back my book, peasant," she threatens, the blackness of the orb starting to spread around her.

"Oh Silvia," he sounds sad. "Don't do that. I don't want to.""How do you know my name?"

Silvia props herself on a tree branch far from the scene, watching the The other world her and Azure talk, it appears as though the other her is trying to threaten him. If she knows Azure he's probably saying something stupid."Because I am... Batman duh. Come on." Azure is ready for a fight if it comes to that."Stop with the distractions!" She throws her hand out, black chains surrounding Azure.

"How'd you know my kinks?" He smirks.

"Enough!" Her threat echoes across the trees, making the links tighter."No!" Silvia scans the book, trying to find the spell."Alright fine. Go time," he glows blue breaking the chains, he draws his gun and shoots at her right shoulder. This all happens in one swift movement. Like water. A wall of shadows bursts up, blocking the shots. Shadows starts to swarm around her.

"Shadows uh? So unlike you." Pulls out a knife and throws it at her feet where it explodes. She skids back, her eyes glowing silver.

"You know nothing about me."Silvia finally finds the spell. Her eyes rush furiously over the spell before closing the book and jumping down from the tree."Uh. Maybe that's true. But I know you hated killing that boy." He says. She stops her hand in the middle of raising it.

"Which boy?""You know the one. The one you had to kill to get where you are now." Her eyes scan the way, trying to find a way out of this. Her hand lowers to her side.

"How do you know about that? Only the elders know."

"Because I'm me. Does it really surprise you that much?" Hurry up. Her anger spikes up again. She creates a mallet of darkness above her head, ready to slam it down. Azure looks entirely unimpressed."Wait!" A voice yells, running out into the scene. It's Silvia, but with her hair in a bun so she's not as recognizable. Azure rolls his eyes.

"What are you doing? I'm fine get out of here!""No." She steps forward, the book in her hand. "Look, Silvia, we took what didn't belong to us. And this an important time for the Terraneans. One where the spirits come to torment you all while you sleep, but you are the one that drives them away." She recites the tradition like she was once in it. "I come from a place where stuff like this occurred. I understand its importance. So..." she extends her arms. "Here is our apology."

"It's a hug, what a nice apology," The other Silvia holds up her hand, stopping Azure. She steps closer, scanning Silvia and her aura. Her hand lightly touches the cover, like a treasured object. Silvia carefully takes it.

"You are wise. You could make a good leader one day." She turns to leave, but halts. She looks over her shoulder and nods to Azure. "Keep an eye on your friend here. His mouth will get him in trouble." With that, she turns and leaves to the village. Azure smiles.

"Heh I only run it when I need to." He mutters to himself. Silvia waits until her other self is out of sight to move or speak.

"Good luck and good riddance," she mumbles to herself before turning for the woods.

"Honestly, she didn't even smile once. I was using my best stalling material," he said following her.

"She doesn't take kind to strangers. Kind of reminds me of... well, me... when I came to Beacon."Azure nods "That's true, you've changed a lot.""You have too, you know," She points out. Azure looks over.

"You think so." It wasn't a question. She looks back at him at the unusual phrasing.

"Well to me, you have. But others not so much because they don't know you." He stops and gives are a small smile.

"Alright let's click our heels and get out of this swamp." He says then walks on. She follows, until they reach a clearing. She pulls the spell out of her pocket, reading it over. "So you can do it right this time, correct?""Yes. Lucky for us, this world's Silvia has left extensive notes on it." Her eyes scan the incantation and the notes left on the margins.

"Alright good. No more jumping."

"We're gonna have to in order to get back home." Her hands stretch in front of her body. "That is, unless you want to stay here.""Alright. We won't be sucked into the wrong one right?""I'm pretty sure we won't be. There's a small incantation that lets the portal trace our aura to the right realm."

She smiles, starting to read the incantation off of the paper. Azure stands looking around as she chants. Finally time to go home. A bluish strand floats from the pages, forming a circle in front of them. It glows a bright blue as the strand connects. In the circle is a view of a world devastated by Grimm.

"Cheery," Azure mumbles.

"Welcome to our world," she sighs, folding up the paper and sticking it in her pocket. She smiles at him, then looks to the portal. She waves her hand over it, showing the living room of her home. Taking a breath, she pushes into the portal. He follows close behind watching everything closely. A portal opens up in her room, making everything glow with a blue tint. Silvia squints as she walks into the room, still holding Azure's hand tight. He walks into her room.

"And we're sure this is the right one. Some crazy other Silvia isn't going to bust in here and try and kill us correct?"

"Give me your scroll again and we'll find out." Silvia takes his scroll and searches up some current news. "Yup. This news is the same stuff I saw before I started the spell." She also does quick research on the both of them.

"This look like your profile?" She shows him the screen.

"Mm murder, mass murder, breaking and entering, torture, and killer good looks. Yep that's what Atlas has on me." Silvia smirks just a bit.

"Figured." She takes back the screen, replacing his info with hers. "It's okay on my end, too."

"Alright good. And Silvia don't mess around with pay per view tv again okay?"

"I know." She waves her hand at the portal, the bluish glow cutting off like the view to a television. He smiles and goes to the door and opens it.

"Don't worry, Silv this world isn't as broken as it seems." Silvia smiles faintly, then it fades. "Wait. Can I ask you something? Why'd you do that?"

"Do what?" Azure asks confused.

"Come after me when I got sucked into the portal," she replied.

"You would've gotten yourself killed, couldn't let that happen now could I?" She looks up at him, face almost registering it in slow motion.

"You still care about me? After all I did?" Azure hesitates before answering.

"I care if you die, we are old friends." A flicker of sadness shines in her eyes before she looks down, the light fading. "

Yeah. Old friends."

"Yea," he looks at her for a moment before saying more, then switching back to joking "now don't go off and get yourself into trouble before dinner please."

Laughing he heads out. Of course he went after her. Asking ridiculous questions. 'Oh well can't be helped' he thinks as he pulls out a piece of paper. 'Let's see how that spell can really be used.'

Silvia sighs, closing the door as he went out. She walks to the window, thinking about what transpired. He cared, but how much? What wasn't he letting on?

Opening the door to his place Azure goes inside and heads to the basement. There he sets the paper on his work table and sighs. It's time to get to work.


	6. Chapter 6 The Date

Silvia is sitting at her mirror, carefully pushing the black studded earring through the hole in her earlobe. She takes a small clip and attaches it to the back. Her hair immediately folds over her ears in small curls.Azure looks through his closet. Hm blue shirt blue shirt blue shirt. Oh holy blue shirt. Blue shirt. "I think I'll wear a blue shirt." He mutters to himself grabbing one and putting it on. Then he grabs his newly washed jacket and throws it on as well. Then he glances at his weapons. After hesitating for a moment he grabs his watch so he can call any weapons he needs and two knives. He puts the knives into the insides of his boots in special little holsters. He looks at himself in the mirror. "Looks good then."Silvia reaches across and retrieves her charm bracelet, which can transform into her bow and arrows. Knowing her and Azure, who knows if an enemy would come and ruin the date. If she could even call this a date. She links it around her left wrist and double checks herself in the mirror.Azure groaned. What was he thinking? He knew their history. Offering to take Silvia on this date like thing was just asking for trouble. They'd been through this, to many times. And here he was doing it again. He needed to proceed carefully.Silvia sighed and headed to her closet. Her mind started to wander as she pulled out a pair of black heels. They were just going as friends. Nothing more, and nothing less. She can't push anything, like she has in the past.Azure shook his head. He needed to remember to be his "normal" joking self. It's what she'll expect. He glances at a piece of paper on his table. Then shakes his head again and walks towards his door.

Silvia turns back to her mirror, an inch or two taller than her usual height. She forgot what it was like to dress up and actually have fun. At least, that's what she hoped tonight would include. She grabs her keys and tucks them inside her clutch as she waits for Azure.

Azure walks down the street to her place. He walks up and knocks on her door. She walks over and opens the door.

"Glad to see you made it at 7 sharp." Azure leans in the door."Well of course, what else do you expect?" He asks smiling."Besides deadly precision, not much," she replies with a smirk. Azure shrugs"Can't argue with that. Let's go?""Sure." She steps out and closes the door behind her. "Now I figured we'd go get some dinner first.""Sounds like the logical thing to do. Got a place in mind?" She asks, glancing at him.

"Yea there's this nice little place down the street that away. Has good spaghetti.""I think I can smell it from here. That, or my hunger is just making me imagine things."

"Ha maybe a little of both." He says walking backwards so he can talk facing her. Her eyes look over him a bit before meeting his eyes, eyebrow raised. "Aren't you concerned you might trip over something?""Nah. I do this all the time.""The fact I'm only noticing this now says something.""Ha about what?""About me, I guess. Caught up in my own world to notice small things. For example, you walking backwards." She motions to him at the last bit."In your defense we don't do a lot of just casual walking. Mostly running around fighting." She shrugged slightly."You have a fair point."

"Of course. Ah here we are." They we're at a little Italian place.

"After all these years, you think I would have at least checked out this place once." Azure glanced at it. He remembered watching it burn. All of this. But that was another world. This place is fine now.

"Well nows your chance." Silvia opens the door and holds it for Azure. "Ladies first." He walks in smirking at her over his shoulder

"Thanks." She rolls her eyes, unable to push back the smirk that appears on her mouth as she walks in, the door shutting behind her. Azure stands talking to a waiter getting seats for them. She walks next to him, holding her clutch in front of her body. The waiter nods and grabs two menus. He motions for them to follow as he leads off. The two of them sit down facing each other. Azure looks around at the other people eating. A candle sits between them, illuminating both of their faces in the warm glow. "Nice decor.""Yea. It's nice isn't it. I like it.""You've been here before?""A few times yea.""What do you recommend?" She asks, unfolding her menu." Well like I said, the spaghetti is great. Though I think this time I'll try the chicken fettuccine." Silvia flips to the page where that is and reads over the description.

"That does look good. But I'll go with your recommendation." Azure smiles. He should say something. But he's pulling up a blank. How atypical for him. The waiter comes over and takes their orders. He also asks for drink orders.

"Iced tea, please.""Oh um. Just water please." He nods and walks away with the orders.

"Simple order.""Eh water is fine. Maybe I'll get something more later." There's a pause then Azure finally speaks up. "How've you been."

"Oh pretty good. Still kind of recovering from the whole universe jumping thing." She replies.

"Ah yes. That was something else alright." It makes since it's still bothering her. That was horrible in many ways, especially for her.

"Like, I still stayed with my tribe? With Gaea?" She laughs shortly. "I was living my worst nightmare.""Well not the worst. But pretty damn bad yea.""What do you mean not the worst?""At least you were alive weren't you?"She hesitates for a second. "Yeah."

"I consider that at least slightly better then. Don't you?" "You're right." She meets his eyes. The waiter comes with their drinks. "Thank you." She takes the straw and sticks it in, immediately taking a sip of the tea. Azure takes his water and does the same. Drinking slowly. She sets her drink down. She tries to bring up a topic to delay the awkward silence between them, but nothing comes to mind.

"Heard anything from anyone recently?" Azure blurts out.

"Is Paige a good answer?""I guess, but I did mean people wise," he said smiling. She returns the smile.

"Not really. Aulora stopped in the one day. We hung out for a bit, but it was weird, since I don't know her that well."

"Mm yes. I suppose they aren't my biggest fans."

"I think Aulora still likes you. She seems like a forgiving person."

"Well that's one of them." Azure says.

"What about you?"

"Oh I saw Viridian the other day, playing with his cards or whatever."

A few minutes pass and the waiter brings them there food. Silvia thanks the waiter as she unwraps her silverware.

"Can you pass me the parmesan cheese?" Azure picks it up and gives it to her.

"Here you go."

"Thanks." She moves for it, their fingers brushing lightly. Panicking, she takes it out of his hands and shakes it quickly over her pasta. "this is really good," she says after swallowing.

"Told you didn't I?"

"Proving yourself right once again."

"Always." He said smiling. She smiles back, going back to her dinner. She slurps up a piece of loose spaghetti. Chuckles slightly and continues eating. He glances around the room again watching everyone. She chuckles softly and finishes up her spaghetti, getting some sauce around her mouth. "Oh god, that was good.""Big time. You want dessert?""I'm pretty full..." she rubs her stomach, pausing. "But I always have room for dessert.""Same. What do you want?""What do they have?""Mm a few kinds of ice cream and chocolate cakes."She props herself up. "Did you just say chocolate cake?" He smiles

"I did."

"You just sold me."

"That didn't take much."

"It's chocolate, man. It's my weakness."

"Ditto.""You want to share a slice, or should we get separate ones?""Why don't we share. A bit full remember."She nods. "Good point." The waiter comes and takes their plates, as well as taking their order for dessert. Azure glances at his empty water cup.

"Hey I need to use the restroom. I'll be right back."

"Alright." She says, taking a sip of her iced tea. Azure stands and goes to the back area where the bathroom is, instead of going into the bathroom though he ducks out the back exit. Hidden in the shadows he sees the glint of something on a roof top. He'd been watching it all night. He carefully pulls out a knife and throws it. The glint disappears and he hears the knife dropping to the floor. He runs towards to building and jumps from ledge to ledge getting to the the top. A person on a green hood and sniper rifle stand there. "Who are you?"

Silvia waits patiently, but it wanes. She pulls out her phone from her clutch. It's been 10 minutes. The waiter brings their slice of cake. Once he leaves, Silvia gets up and uses her semblance to sneak into the guy's bathroom. No one is in there. She leaves, disappointed. Was it something she did?

"Ah so you saw me. I should've known you would.""Who are you?" Azure asked again pressing a button on his watch."Our world doesn't take kindly to visitors. I'm here to arrest you for trespassing into our world." Azures eyes widen. He should've known, the last place he'd visited didn't take kindly to his being there at all. And somehow they all knew he wasn't from their planet. Even a small child. The man raised his rifle and pointed it Azure."You're coming with me."

Silvia passes the back door on the way back to her seat, but pauses when she hears voices. She presses her ear to the door, recognizing one as Azure. She uses her semblance to slip out of the door.

"Yea see I don't really want to.""You don't have much choice in the matter." The man said firing. However just then a pod crashed down between them. It popped open and Azure grabbed out the contents. A long one handed double edged sword and a perfectly round shield. He jumped over the pod and blocked the next few shots with his shield.

Silvia hears the pod crash down and climbs up the side railing, until she gets to the top. She yanks her charm bracelet off, the bow and arrow forming in her hand. She launches a shot at the green hooded man. The man catches the arrow without looking focusing his attention solely on Azure whom he fires at again. Azure jumps over the man spinning in mid air and blocks the shots. When Azure lands the man's sniper rifle had shifted into a wickedly curved sword. He swings at Azure who blocks it with his shield and stabs at the man's stomach stomach. The man stops the blade by making a small green shield, just like Azure's semblance. While the man is distracted, Silvia launches another arrow, this time with an explosive tip. He creates another glowing shield. Azure and him continue to fight. The two are moving incredibly fast covering most of the roof slashing back and forth. The man flips over Azure who blocks the mans attempt at an overhead strike. Then he lands crouched and tries to cut his feet out from under Azure. However Azure jumps and kicks the man in the face. He rolls back and catches Azure's next slash. Silvia groans. If only she had her sword. Sadly, it doesn't go with the outfit.

"You good?" Azure rolls to her side. "Yea. But this guy. He-" Azure was interrupted by the man attacking again forcing Azure on the defensive for a moment before he was able to counter attack.

"He's what?" She asked, shooting another arrow at his feet. The man was forced back by the arrow. "He's not from here!" Azure shouted pressing his advantage and jumping over the man slashing at his head as he goes. The man blocks and counter strikes which Azure catches between his shield and sword. Twisting the sword is knocked out the man's hand. Azure kicks the man in the stomach and he stumbles back.

"Then where is he from?" She charges forward, swinging her bow into the guy's face. He rolls back and holds out his hand behind him, a portal opens up behind him and swallows him. Azure looks around.

"Be sharp he can come from anywhere." Her eyes narrow as she scans the area.

"That portal... is he from another world?" Her hands tighten their grip on her bow.

"Yes. He's from a world where planet hopping is well known. However it's outlawed. They don't take kindly to strangers either."

"So I guess we're in trouble for world hopping?"

"Ah well you aren't."

"I was the one who cast the spell. I should be in trouble."

"Well." He glances at her. "He isn't from the planets you visited."

"Then why is he here?" She looks over him. "Did you do something?"

"Ehhh. Maybe." Silvia's face drops, immediately replaced by anger. "Azure. How the hell did you learn that spell?"

"I kinda, took it."

"You what?!" She exclaims before walking away to collect a breath. She slings the bow over her shoulder before walking back over to him. Her face is slightly red from forcing back her anger. "How many times have you used it?"

"Once or twice. Or 10. I'm mapping them so I can learn how choices can affect our lives."

"You are also running the risk of getting stuck and not finding your way back."

"Well after visiting his world that's less of a risk. I uh stole some tech that helps me jump." A small laugh escapes Silvia's mouth, almost mocking.

"Of course you did. Great. Now we have someone else to worry about."

"I needed to know okay." She pauses for a second. She flashes back to the days when she lived in her home village, to the nights where she went with no sleep because of spells that caught her eye. She couldn't rest without having to know what they could do or if she could cast it. She sighs.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Now he'll be back. Not until he catches me or dies."

"He'll have to get pass my dead body if he wants to get to you." Silvia's voice cold and serious, as she looks out at where the portal appeared. Only when she realizes what she said does she look at Azure. Azure smiles at her.

"Thanks. Though somehow I doubt that'll bother him to much." She shrugs, a small smile on her mouth.

"It'll bother him soon enough."

"Yea. Hey I'm sorry about all this."Azure says. Silvia holds up a hand.

"I've been dealing with you for how long?"

"You're right. Still it did mess up our dinner."Her hand lowers.

"It's fine. What do you say we take our cake to go and head to the park?"

"Yea. Yea that sounds good."She nods and converts her bow back to a bracelet. She links it around her wrist before climbing back down the roof.

Azure places his sword and shield back into the pod and presses a few buttons. It takes off back to his place. She gets back down to ground level and waits for Azure who lands next to her.

"I'll go pay while you pick up the food okay?"

"Sure. You don't want me to chip in at all?"

"Nah that's okay don't worry about it."

"At least let me pay the tip." He glances over at her and pauses before saying.

"Alright if you insist."

"Thank you." She smirks and heads inside, holding the door open for him. Azure smiles as he enters and heads to the counter to pay. Silvia gets the cake to go, while she pulls out a 5-dollar bill for a tip.

Azure is waiting for her at the front. Thinking. That guy. Whoever he was was really good. Probably part of the elite squad he ran into last time he had been put the Atlas military to shame, he should know to with the amount of run ins he had had with them. He should've known they were after him, they'd mentioned something about their boss. Whoever their boss was wanted them to bring in Azure, and he had a feeling it wasn't just because he'd broken their laws. Silvia walks over, her clutch in one hand and the bag with the cake in the other. "We good?"

"Yup let's roll." She nods, both of them exiting the eatery and walking to the park. Azure glances around. The night is cold and dark. He's slightly uneasy. The streetlights, rebuilt after the recent Grimm attack, start to flash on, illuminating the walkway. The faint warmth isn't enough for a gust of cold air to send shivers down her spine.

"Vale is slowly coming back together isn't it?"

"Yeah," she replies, her arms wrapping around her upper body to keep warm. "It isn't the Vale I grew up loving, but it's getting there." Azure glances around. He'd never appreciated Vale. Or anywhere really. He was always caught up in some job.

"It can't ever go back to normal."

"Sadly." They approach the park, dimly lit by the fractured moon above.

"You know in one of the worlds I went to, the moon wasn't like that. It was amazingly different as well." Azure remarks looking up at the moon.

"What was it like?" Silvia asked.

"Well the Grimm weren't as prominent. They didn't require huntsmen and huntresses. So Beacon and Haven weren't around. It was weird."

Her face scrunches up a bit. "A world with little threats? I can't imagine living like that. Though it would sound nice."

"Well they had a tendency to fight themselves. Humans can't go on without conflict. We thrive on it." Azure frowned.

"So they take it out on each other."

"Yup." He shakes his head.

"We still do, despite the Grimm. But all we can do is hope for the best. And hope for hope." She stops as they approach a scorched part of the park. Silvia remembers this as where she defended the park from Grimm invaders, Azure looks over at Silvia

"That was something all right." She chuckles softly, looking at the field a bit longer.

"Yeah." Her smile fades as she looks at him."Thank you. For tonight. You didn't have to do this whole 'date' thing.""I suppose so. But it was fun. I'm glad we did this." He says smiling.

"Me too. Maybe we can do this again sometime."

He glances at her and smiles lightly. "Maybe. Maybe so." Her smile widens. "Yeah. Azure stands and looks around the park. "So you want to get back?"

"Sure. I'm not in a hurry though." Silvia replies.

"Same actually." Azure says. Silvia chuckles and extends her arm.

"Then let's stroll on back." The two of them stroll down the street back to her place the street dimly lit by the street lamps overhead. Azure can't get the feeling that something isn't right. Yet Silvia is to happy to bother right now. He smiles deciding to let it go.

Silvia smiles to herself, her mind flashing back to the days when the two of them were together. When the only thing between them was the constant wave of enemies. Now, it was just like that, and nothing could go wrong.

On a distant rooftop a portal opens and out steps the hooded man from before. He stands still as a statue watching them from afar. Behind him a woman steps out and the portal closes.

"So those two bested you?"

"Not quite. But it seems it'd be a poor idea to fight both of them alone."

"Why do you need to fight the girl?"

"I have no doubt that she will try and defend the male at all costs."

"Interesting. Well I suppose we have no choice then."

"No. No we don't."


	7. Chapter 7 The White Shadow Approaches

**CHASE PART 7**

Silvia flicked her loose hair out of her face, some strands sticking on her forehead due to the sweat slicked on it.

"Come on Azure. I know you can do better than that." Azure smiles and laughs.

"Well of course I can. Can you though?" She chuckles.

"We both know the answer to that question." Azure hefts the big sword he's wielding into his shoulder. He'd chosen this sword because of its weight and reach. Azure made all of his weapons for a different reason. This one works well against large armies or heavy fighters. However because of his height he has no problem wielding it against a faster opponent like Silvia.

"Naturally." Azure presses the button on the handle. It fires a bullet out of the pommel straight at her. Silvia narrows her eyes and waits just until the bullet is inches away before skirting out of the way, using her sword to deflect it. Azure followed right behind it and slashes at her as she knocks away the pommel. She brings her sword up just in time to block the blow. Azure kicks her in the stomach and swings downward. Silvia pushes back against it, struggling because of his sword's size. Azure gives a large shove forcing her back. Silvia stumbles, tightening the grip on her sword. Azure slashes at her left side. She attempts to block, only blocking it barely. Azure uses his left leg to kick at her right side. She takes the blow, getting knocked back with a grunt. Azure takes a step back to throw a knife at her sword hand and follows it up with a slash from the flat side of the heavy sword. Silvia rolls to the side, pulling her sword in front of her to catch his sword in hers. The knife hits a tree and quivers there, he now has the advantage.

"You have no footing." Azure says referencing her kneeling position. She stands up as he talks.

"We'll have to fix that later." Silvia says.

"Next time catch the knife hm?" She looks back at the knife.

"Yeah, that wasn't a smart move for me. Smart on your part."

"Always think ahead."  
Azure says.

"You know me. Always in the moment."

"To true. Well this was good." Azure says as he walks over to the tree. "Again tomorrow?"

"Of course," she replies, sheathing her Claymore sword. "Oh, I got something for you." He slides the knife into his belt .

"Yea?" Silvia heads over to her duffel bag and pulls out a black handheld pull-tie bag.

"Open this up." She tosses it to him. Azure catches it and eyes it for a second. Then he opens it up. Inside the bag is a smart watch, with a touch screen. It is a sheer black, with his blue around the trimming.

"Ohhhh. What's this for?"

"In case you leave your scroll at home. It has all the same features as your scroll. All you have to do is link them up, and you can call and message with ease." She pulls up her glove sleeve, revealing another watch, but with her signature purple. "There was a 2 for 1 deal."

"Ha wow thanks! This'll be incredibly helpful." Silvia smiles when he says this. "You're welcome. Also, consider it a thank you for training with me."

"Oh you don't have to thank me for that. But this is great thanks." Azure smiles and sheathes his sword on his back and starts to head out. "See you tomorrow."

"See ya tomorrow." She waves as she slings the duffel bag onto her shoulder and walks to the entrance.

Silvia unlocks her door, and takes off her smart watch. She opens the small hatch and plugs in the charger. "Was it too much?" She asks herself, looking down at the new contraption. "Nah. He'll understand." Silvia gets ready for bed, letting some instrumental music play through the speakers. She brings her spell book into her bed, letting the light fall on her. She flicks to a random page. That page, to her disappointment, was the multi-verse spell. She sighs. Of course this is the same spell Azure stole from her. Now that green hooded man was after him, and he posed a threat. That's why she's been bringing her all at training: so she could defend herself, and Azure if need be. She shut the book and clapped, shutting off the light and the music.

Azure heads to his place and goes to his basement. There he places the watch Silvia had gotten him on a table. Then he removes his old smart watch and places it next to hers. "Well then. A new one uh? Let's see he looks at the booklet. New features. Better connection. Thanks Silvia. Plus look at the color. Gotta love blue." Azure mutters to himself. He sits down and starts to play with it setting up the connections and what not to his weapons. He kept his weapons in capsules he could call to him at anytime with a simple press of a button. He also attached it to the AI he'd been working on. "Maybe it'll work on here. No, it's not ready." Azure looked at the watch in satisfaction, placed it on the table and stood up. Azure picked up the old one and put it in a high shelf. Then he went over to his main computer and set to work. After a few hours of working he turned away. On the one of the other worlds he'd found an AI system. It was being used by a criminal syndicate so he "borrowed" it and had been trying to integrate it into his tech. It was slow work. Azure headed to the steps but stopped before he got farther.  
"I wondered how long it would take you to notice."

The next day

Silvia bolted out of bed, excited for another day of training. She shot a message to Azure on her scroll, asking if he wanted anything from the coffee shop down the street beforehand. She grabbed her sword and pulled her hair back into its signature ponytail before heading for the door. Just as she touched the doorknob, she rushed back inside for her smart watch. "Can't forget you." She smiled and headed out to the park. By the time Silvia got to the park, she had two coffees in hand. Although Azure hadn't responded, she still got him his usual. "Hey Azure. You here? Got you a coffee?" Silvia waits several more minutes but still gets nothing. "What the hell?" She sets the coffees down and tries to call his watch. Silvia chugs her coffee and throws the other one out. She bolts to his house, her heart racing from the possibility of Azure being late. He was never late. Silvia looks around in a panic. As she crosses the street to the block of his house, she sees a small movement out of the corner of her eye. She follows it up and skids to a stop as she sees a flash of blue. Azure. Silvia sees the glow of a portal and narrows her eyes. She starts to climb the scaffolding of the nearest building. Once she reaches the top, she plugs an ice dust shard into her sword. It's blue glow starts to create a staircase up to where the fight is occurring. Silvia just reaches level with the building when she sees Azure's upper half stuck in a portal. "No!" She finishes the stairs, jumping into the air and through the glass window, shattering it to pieces. "Azure!" She yells, trying to get to him.

Previously

Azure frowned into the darkness of the abandoned building the two of them had gotten to. At least he thought it was only the two of them. Sometimes it was hard to tell. He only had his gun and knives with him. Which is fine, but he liked being able to change it up in the middle. He didn't have his scroll or either watch with him. Azure throws a knife into the wall behind the person where it blows up, the two of them flip away. Both he and the person had very similar fighting styles. Azure and the hooded man exchange kicks and punches at lightning speed as they maneuver through the building's support beams. Azure jumps from one beam to the next followed closely by the man. They both land on the ground, the man kicking straight at Azure's head. He rolls back and spins on his hands kicking out. The man ducks under and back up. Azure pushes up and launches into the air where he flips over and lands 10 feet away. Azure throws four knives in quick succession. The man dodges three and knocks aside one. However when it hits off to the side it explodes. The man is tossed towards Azure who spins and kicks him twice in the chest a follows up with a final kick down onto his head. The man smashes into the ground cracking the cement. Azure stops, breathing heavily. The two had been fighting for hours. He stands and turns around when a portal opens up behind him. Azure spins around but it's too late. The portal starts swallowing him.

"Dammit it!" Azure yells. He holds out his hand and starts to chant. A woman stands holding the unconscious man.

"Save your breath. Your powers pale in comparison to our technology." Azure stops chanting and looks around. He can't get out of this so.

"Fine then. Be that way." He pulls out a knife and throws it a beam.  
"What was th-" The knife had hit another one he'd thrown before and exploded causing the beam to crack and break. It falls and hits another one breaking it. This causes a chain reaction as support beams are knocked down.  
"Bye now." Azure says smirking and gets fully swallowed by the portal.

The portal starts closing the women starts dragging the hooded man to the portal. Silvia halts in front of the portal, her sword outstretched towards them. "Get any closer to him, and you'll deal with me." The ceiling starts crumbling.

"I'm sorry dear but you'll have to follow us if you want to get your boyfriend back. Though I wouldn't suggest that. You'll be wanted. Just as he is." The women said as she pressed a few buttons on a gauntlet. The portal Azure had been sucked into closed and another opened behind her. "Good bye" she says stepping into it. It closes behind her. Silvia rushes forward, in an attempt to get to the portal but falls to the ground, her sword skidding away from her. "Azure..." she manages, reaching blindly for her sword. The building is crumbling around her, large chunks falling from the ceiling. A large piece almost hits her head before exploding.

"Hey beautiful, why the long face." It's Viridian. Azure's former friend. His green dress is tucked into his perfectly pressed dress pants his, black vest fitted perfectly to his slim build. He smiles at Silvia. "Come on!" Silvia grabs her sword and puts it over her head to defend from the boulder. She doesn't have to think twice as she pushes off the ground to follow him.

"How do we get it of here?" Viridian takes out his staff and spins it knocking aside a few rocks.

"This way if you will." A small bow follows it.

"That actually helps."

"Naturally." He responds. The two struggle through the falling rocks knocking them aside. Finally they get out and stand to the side of the falling building. Viridian adjust his black vest and green collared shirt. "Why were you there of all places?"

"I could ask you the same question, Viridian."

"There was a falling building, I just came to help out. Is the job after all." Silvia opens her mouth to retort, but shuts it. He's right.

"Azure was in trouble."

"In trouble uh? What'd he do this time? Kill a terrorist who had angry buddies? He did that once. It was funny." Silvia rolls her eyes, then proceeds to explain their situation, starting from the incident where they traveled universes up to the problem with the green-hooded man and the woman that was with him. "You guys should have a TV show. Or a book series. Seriously who has these kinds of problems." It wasn't really a question. "So you're gonna follow them aren't you?"

"What else do you expect me to do? But how can I figure out where they went?"

"You said Azure has been doing a bit of traveling yes? Well let's see what he knows. Maybe he's marked down places he's been. Like a scrapbook or something." She nods slowly.

"Right. Come on, I know where he lives."

"Lead the way." Viridian said smiling. Jeez these two have it rough. She nods, starting to walk down the block to his house. "Thank you, by the way."

"Oh don't worry about it. Like I said. It is the job."

"Yeah, but I should have been saving myself. Instead, all I did was mope."

"Mm perhaps. Though I find that if you rely only on yourself you end up a lot like Azure." She looks at Viridian for a moment.

"Guess that's one way of putting it." Viridian nods yawning. He runs his hand through his black hair and smiles. The reach a building that has its door wide open. "Uhhhhh is that it?" She looks to where he is referencing and her skin goes pale. She pushes past him and into the house. There are signs of a fight throughout the hall. "So I take it this is where the fight started."

"How did they get past the defenses?" Silvia asks looking around in a panic, finding the door to the basement. She throws it open and flies down the stairs, two at a time. Viridian follows her in.

"Couldn't they just use a portal and get right in?"He asks.

"Yes." An electronic voice responds. It's reminiscent of Azure. Silvia looks up at the ceiling. "Azure?"  
"No this is A-2-U-R-3. The artificial intelligence being constructed by Azure Požar. Who are you." Silvia sighs. Of course it's an AI.

"I'm Silvia Danvers. And this is Viridian."

"Who names an AI after themselves?" He asks.

"Clearly Azure did," she replies, directed at Viridian. She then directs herself back to the AI. "Both of us have direct relations with Azure. He was taken by the people who have broken in here, and we need your help.

"Interesting. Unfortunately I am incomplete. And have no abilities beyond information."

"Information is all we need."

"What do you require then?"

"Any records of Azure using portals to visit other universes. Also, any notes that he wrote down about his ventures."

"Very well." It's sits for a minute. Viridian glances at Silvia.

"Kinda slow?"

"Just a bit. Give it some time." A video of Azure pops up, the AIs voice can be heard.

"This is the one that most closely relates to the hooded people."

"Turn up the volume." She says, moving towards the screen. The volume increases. Azure's voice crackles to life. "Apparently this world has a 'no across world travel law.' Now I got away without trouble this time but I need to go back. The tech they have there is outstanding. With it I can easily get A2ur3 to work. With that the other half of my plan would be easily realized. I plan on returning tomorrow. End log." The video ended and the AI popped back up.

"This was the video related to his first visit. Here is the second." Another video of Azure appears. He looks a bit tired this time. But he's smiling. "This time I did run into trouble. Though I got what I wanted. Well the basics of it. If I run into problems I may have to return and get a few more things. End log."

"Those are the only time he visited that earth. I have heard him say he may have to go again. He refers to it as world 3. He said he got the naming system from the comics." Silvia shook her head, Azure and his damn naming systems. It's part of the reason she fell for him until he first place. That, and his quirk for chocolate.

"Is there anyway you can pull up the schematics for that world? No doubt they took him there."

"Mm. I believe so. Give me several minutes."

Silvia groans quietly. They didn't have time. Azure could be getting tortured, or worse. But they couldn't go into this blind.

"Alright. Thank you."

"So when we get there what do we do?" Viridian asks.

"I..." she plops herself down on a swivel chair, her elbows propped on her knees. "I don't know."

"Well I guess we can figure it out as we go." Viridian looks around at everything. "This guy has a lot of weapons." Viridian smiles slightly. Seriously this guy was slightly insane with the amount of weapons. He had six capsules lining the walls along with several swords and guns on racks. A few different kinds. Viridian couldn't tell the difference between them, he used cards as weapons. Or anything he could throw really.

"Yeah. He always does." She looks up, when a small flash of light catches her eye. She stands up and walks to the source. It's the watch she had given him the day before. On the screen was the text message she sent him earlier. She strokes the watch screen tenderly.

"Uh what's that?" Viridian asks.

"It's a smart watch," she responds, still looking at the watch. "I just got it for him yesterday." A faint trace of a smile shows. Viridian glances over at her. He walks over and looks down.

"Well just make sure you give it to him when we find him."

"What if he's hurt?" She asks, her voice barely above a whisper.

"He's him. He'll be fine. The only person I've ever seen give him trouble is Noir."

"But this is an entirely new threat that we know almost nothing about."

"Yea, guess you may be right. But you just have to be confident." Viridian said looking in a mirror. She looks at her reflection in the screen of the smart watch. "Guess that's the thing about me. I've never been confident."

"Well you're in luck. I'm the physical embodiment of confidence." Silvia smiles faintly, tucking the watch into her side pocket.

"I would say narcissism, but confidence is a better term."  
Silvia jokes.

"Well it's nicer at least." He smiles and runs his fingers through his hair again.

"I have found the location." The AI finally says.

"Thank you. Where is it?"

"I will send it to your scroll. It's what he said he used to locate the world a second time. He said it was fairly straightforward. Chant that alongside the normal chant and that world will appear." She pulls out her scroll, her eyes running over the incantation.

"Simple enough. Thank you so much."

"Of course." The AI responds before shutting off.  
"I like baby terminator" Viridian says.

Silvia takes a few blades with her from the shelves. Viridian glances at her when she takes them.

"You think you need those?" Viridian asks.

"Just in case. I can covert them to charms on my bracelet, if I need to." Silvia puts the last one on her belt before heading upstairs. Viridian glances around the room now that he's alone. Azure had tried to train him to. He didn't take to it. Azure stressed the darkness and foulness of the world and the necessity of killing off people. Azure was broken, and not just his back but his heart and mind. Noir had raised him to be nothing but a killer. Viridian knew that for awhile Azure had tried to stop. Tried to be better, but somehow Noir had broken him again and Azure returned to killing and torturing. Even if he didn't say he was the Dragon, that he was better, Azure was still very close to being that. No amount of smiles and jokes would change that. Even still he did care about him. Not that he'd tell anyone that. Viridian sighs and follows up Silvia. She let herself get caught up with Azure to much. She should let him be sometime.

Silvia pulls back out her scroll, looking over the chant. "You might want to stand back for this. Last time I did this, we got sucked into the portal."

"Well at least this time it'll be on purpose." She doesn't reply, as she starts the incantation her and Azure both knew. A blue strand links together, forming an icy blue pool before them, lighting up the room. She glances down at her scroll and adds the portion Azure used to find the world.

"Do you know where in that world we'll come out?" Viridian asks.

"No clue. So stay with me." She extends her hand to him as an image of the world appears in the portal. He stands next to her watching the portal closely.

"Now or never, Viridian."

"Ready when you are." She smirks before jumping in, being consumed by the portal. A single shake of his head and Viridian follows as well. The portal closes behind him, and another one opens up in this new world. Silvia steps out, fixing her ponytail. Viridian steps next to her yawning.

"The outside makes me tired."

"Of course it does." She closes the portal behind Viridian, and scans the new world. Suddenly a wave of panic fills through her body, but she doesn't let it show. He smiles and looks around stretching. This isn't to bad. Still Azure isn't here. That much is clear.

"Okay, so... a green-hooded figure and a woman. They have to work for some big company." Silvia points out.

"Probably. Or maybe the government if it's a law that you can't travel."

"There's only one way to find out. To the library!"

"Yaayyyy." Viridian said. Though there was no excitement in his voice. She looked at him, an unreadable look on her face.

"You're telling me you'd rather let Azure rot in a cell instead of doing some measly research and saving his ass."

"Eh. I guess not. But libraries are just so blah. Let's go though."

"Good." She jumps down from the ledge they were on and proceeded to the library, assuming it was still in the same location and Viridian follows close behind. Viridian fell into step next to her looking around. The buildings were the same. Well the same as they were before the attack. So many of the places in Vale were in ruins now. This place showed no sign that an attack of any kind had occurred here. Viridian may not mind this place but it looked to clean.

"So what have you been up to, Viridian?" She asked, trying to break the quiet between them. "I haven't seen you in a while."

"Mostly just working. Cleaning out Grimm. Slowly we're getting them out of there. Obviously it's because of how great I am." Silvia rolled her eyes.

"Sure it is."

"What about you hm? Why are you and Azure not helping out?"

"He's been helping me train. Ever since the attack on Vale, I haven't felt right with my fighting. Azure's the only person who knows me better than me."

"Train uh? And yeah he tends to know how people fight." Viridian remarks. He knows why to. So he can beat them.

"So until I can get myself to a better level, I don't want to fight and risk the lives of others on my mistakes. Viridian raises an eyebrow.

"Well whatever floats your boat."

"I know it doesn't sound like me." She proceeds up the stairs of the library. "But I've changed." Viridian follows.

"As long as it's for the better."

"Yeah..." She looks around at the vast amount of books that towered to the ceiling like skyscrapers.

"Can I help you?" A woman with black reading glasses asks, walking up to them.

"Yes. My friend and I were wondering if you had any information on research done on alternate universes."

"Research project for school?"

"You could say that." The librarian nods.

"Well, we have a computer room that you can use. Anything you need will be in there."

"Thanks." Viridian says smiling charmingly. The women looks at him and tilts her head squinting for a second, then she nods and leads them to the computer room.

"This is the computer room. Enjoy." She opens the door and starts walking back looking at them over her shoulder.

"We need to make this quick," Silvia says, once the door closes. "I have the feeling she's onto us."

"Yea. But why. Is there something different about us?"

"I don't know. And I don't want to stick around here to find out." She plops herself down in front of a computer and starts her work.

"So what are you looking for exactly?"

"Any company that may have that woman associated with it. We find the company, We find Azure." Silvia starts typing at a blinding speed. She starts by looking up a few keywords into the search engine.

Viridian walks over to the door and leans against the wall next to it. He leans twirling a card through his fingers calmly. Listening for approaching feet. So he was helping her train. He wondered how long until he decided she wasn't good enough like he had with him. Silvia's typing stops after a few minutes when she comes across an article.

"Hey, I think I found something."

"Oh really? What is it?" She motions for him to come over to her.

"Some company has been running a monopoly in all alternate universe and portal research. Their name is all I can find in all the databases I checked."

"Seriously? Must be this world's Schnee."

"Honestly." Her eyes narrow. "They're called the Freture Foundation."

"Freture?"

"Probably a play on the word future." She smirks. Silvia moves her cursor to a "Read more" bar, and clicks it. The extra information reveals a picture of a woman in a lab coat and a device on her forearm. "That's the executive director."

"So. We break in a find Azure? Is that our master plan?" Viridian asks doubtful.

"Unless you have a better one." Silvia swivels to face him. "I can use my semblance to cover us, but it won't last long."

"Unfortunately no. I don't." A knock is heard at the door. Viridian looks at Silvia and slips his hand with the card behind his back. Darn it he'd gotten distracted. He waits for Silvia's signal. Silvia looks down at the card and raises an eyebrow. She quickly scans over the info before closing out of the programs. She nods at him. Viridian opens the door. "Yes how can I hel- what?" Azure, or someone who looks like him stands in the doorway.

"Hello I need you to come with me." The man says. His green eyes very bright. Silvia stands up, the chair she was in sliding back.

"Who are you?" Her voice cold.

"My name is Jade. Now as I said before. Please come with me." Behind him several hooded people step forward.

"Who sent you?" She steps forward, next to Viridian. Viridian glances at her out of the corner of his eye keeping quiet.

"My bosses did. If you would like to meet them. Come with me." He says the last sentence with much more force than before. Silvia meets Jade's eyes with a coldness that matches her tone. She hates seeing this version of Azure in front of her instead of her own Azure. However, this was the only way they could get into their headquarters. "Fine."

"Good. Follow me." He turns and walks out. The other hooded people wait to walk until he's at the front. Viridian looks at Silvia.

"Well then. I guess we know how we're getting in now."

"Librarian must have notified them." Silvia says as she follows Jade out, staying close to Viridian. The hooded men really were starting to creep her out.

"Yea." He mutters. Still spinning the card through his fingers.

"There's too many of them to fight," Silvia says, glancing down at his card.

"I know." He glances around at the men. There was to many. Especially if they're all as skilled as the one who was fighting Azure. Viridian looked at Jade. Perhaps that was him.

"What are you thinking?" Silvia asks.

"How'd she know? The librarian. How'd she know we weren't from here?" Silvia shrugs.

"I would say clothing, but the styles are too similar across our worlds."

"Exactly. I can't figure it out. It's so weird."

"It is. Guess it's something we'll have to ask the director."Silvia swallows a lump in her throat. They approach a skyscraper with all glass windows. "He could be anywhere..." she mutters.

"Well at least we don't have to break in."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." They enter the building. Silvia feels the hilt of her sword for comfort. The group of hooded men lead the to an elevator, Jade hits the button and the doors open. He leads them in. The hooded people surround Silvia and Viridian. Out of reflex, Silvia moves towards the middle, away from the men. She ends up squishing herself against Viridian. "Well hello there." She fights back a smile.

"I'm sorry for dragging you into this."

"Ahh it's fine. Much more interesting than what I was doing before."

"Which was?"

"Fighting Grimm."

"Oh. Yeah." She looks over at the hooded figure next to her. He was too close for comfort. Chills brushed down her spine. After a few minutes the elevator reached its destination and the doors opened. Jade led the group through the open doors and down the hallway. After a few minutes of walking it became clear that this wasn't a hallway but a long room. An extremely long room. At the end of the room sat a desk. In front of the desk stood the women from the picture. Silvia's hands tighten into fists at her side, her nails digging into her palm to stop herself from lashing out.

"Welcome. We know why you are here. You are here to save your friend Azure Požar. Unfortunately by doing so you have broken the same laws as your friend." The women said, she had a high cold voice. "You will be subject to the same punishment he is."

"Where is he?" Silvia asks, stepping forward, her voice meeting her tone.

"Away. Where, is none of your concern." A small growl hovers in Silvia's throat.

"You think I'm dumb enough to just let him go?" A deep voice comes from the chair behind the desk.

"I don't think you're dumb. As a matter of fact I know you aren't. That is why you'll know that attempting to do something about it, is pointless."

"It won't stop me from trying. Do what you want to me. He got all this from me in the first place."

"Azure has a knack for getting himself into trouble dear." The man responds.

"But I'm the one who led him to the spell in the first place! I started his obsession." The man simply laughs at this and gestures over the shoulder of the chair. His hand is rather large. The woman steps forward.

"Take them to cells 2-B and 3-F." Her eyes widen as she looks back to Viridian. Viridian shrugs keeping a calm look on his face as they're forced walked forward. One of the men push her forcefully, causing her to stumble. She shoots a glare back at the man before walking ahead to her own doom.

 _Author's Note: Finally got a chapter up with having to break it into_ _pieces. Go me. Anyway I hope you enjoyed it._


	8. Chapter 8 Job Interview

**Chase Part 8**

Azure stood in his cell. He'd been brought here without any ceremony. He hadn't seen anyone either. This world was a weird utopian place. It didn't "have" problems. The company who had him, ruled the world. To anyone on the outside it seemed perfect but if you look just a little harder, you would see the mold that grew. They had amazing technology though, and Azure needed it. Unfortunately they also had extremely strict laws on inner-world travel. Only high ranking members of the company can leave and go. Zero tolerance. The women in charge was named Alice Golden, Azure hadn't met her yet but he figured it was only a matter of time. Azure turned to his door and examined it, he couldn't figure out how but the room suppressed his semblance and weapons. Normally he would've had no trouble fighting his way out, but he'd been teleported straight into this room. He had his knives though and while they could some how suppress the explosions, they couldn't suppress the pointy ends. He was waiting until the doors opened to make his move. 'What about Silvia?' a small voice in his head asked. Azure shook it aside. He couldn't think on that right now. He hoped she hadn't seen him get sucked in. And if she had, Azure she'd have better sense than to follow him here. Suddenly the doors opened and Azure spun around throwing a knife straight at the opening. However instead of flying forward, it flew up and clanged against the ceiling.

"A special magnet. Your knives will be sucked straight up if they are used in any aggressive way." Azure frowned. The two men that had come for him grabbed Azure by the shoulders and pulled him out. "The boss wants to see you."

Silvia sat in the corner of her cell, looking over her sword in her hands. Her face glinted in the reflection, but it wasn't her. Rather, it was the version of her similar to when she arrived at Beacon four years ago. Cold, untrusting, closed off to anyone. Then Azure entered her life, and he changed all that. They've been through so much together, good and bad. So why would she give up on him now? Her grip on her hilt tightened slightly before quickly loosening. She placed her blade at her side and rested her head against the cell door. How would she find Azure in all of this mess? Silvia sheathed her sword and went to the cell door, taking a closer look at her surroundings. The walls were concrete, enough to hold anyone that got access to their semblances. It sucked that hers wasn't working. If she could, she would be able to slip out through the bars and find her friends. But that woman made it extremely difficult. Silvia started to pace in her cell. How could she get out of there and find the others? She stopped in her tracks, an idea popping into her head. She could use her magic. It got her into this mess and it would get her out. She started to chant a small teleportation spell. Silvia suddenly appeared outside of her cell, all of her weapons with her. Pumping her fist in the air, she activated her semblance and proceeded to the cell where Viridian was being held.

Viridian lounged against a wall yawning. Silvia had been separated from him early on. He'd tried to flirt with the people on the way to his cell. It did not work. Not even a little. Sticks in the mud. But who was that man. To anyone paying attention he was the person in charge. Not that lady who was standing there. Viridian had changed his mind, he did _not_ like this world. Freaking Azure getting all wrapped up in some crazy alternate world adventure. Next thing would be time travel or aliens or something. Viridian stood up and paced slowly. He'd quickly figured out his semblance wasn't working. He couldn't charge anything up to explode. How annoying. He looked the door up and down trying to figure a way out. There wasn't one. Viridian pulls out his cards and shuffled them a few times trying to come up with something. Clearly this place was built to hold someone far stronger than him. He'd have to come with something else. But what? Viridian adjusted his vest. And leaned against the wall.

"Hey. I gotta use the potty." He said. Silence followed this as his guard didn't say anything. "Seriously I gotta use the loo, the wiz palace, the bathroom!" Silence again. Viridian shook his head. Dammit that wouldn't work. Viridian had just sat back down when a giant sheet slide down from above and covered his bars. Then a sound like an elevator started and it felt like the room was moving. Viridian stood up and looked around extremely confused. "Well gosh diddly darn."

Silvia got to his floor and looked around in a panic. When she got to the place where 3-F was supposed to be, Viridian wasn't there. "No..." She frantically searched the rest of the floor, thinking she'd misheard the cell number. But all she found were the other cell mates. Suddenly sounds of fighting come from the floor below Silvia. Her head turns to the sounds of shouting from the stairwell and she proceeds down it, her sword in her hand.

Azure is fighting a person in a hood. Two more were unconscious on the ground near by. As Silvia approaches he kicks the person in the chest causing them to fly back. He flips in pursuit and kicks them from above into the ground. Azure lands and looks up seeing Silvia. Her sword is already raised, her semblance dropped at the sight of him.

"Azure? Is that really you?" He stands up straight.

"I see you did follow me. I'm not surprised I guess. Come on let's get going."

"Wait. They have Viridian." Surprise crossed his face.

"You brought Viridian?"

"More like he saved my ass from that falling building and he wanted to come along."

"Alright, well lets find him then. Any ideas?"

"I know he was in cell 3-F. But they must have moved him or something, cause he's gone."

"Strange. It's too dangerous to just walk around in the open like this. Let's find some place to stay low and figure out our next move." She nods.

"I'm pretty sure she knows I'm out of my cell, so we need to move quick."

"Golden? Damn her. Come on follow me." Azure runs off in the opposite direction she came from. Silvia runs to meet his speed.

"That's her name?" Silvia asks.

"Alice Golden. The face of this company. Basically the whole world actually. This company is far more than a simple company. They also run the government. That's why they can hold us like this and it's legal." Silvia scoffs.

"Some government. So is that why they're after you?"

"Well they have strict no travel laws. Kinda broke them. Twice. Oh here we are. In here." Azure skids to a stop next to a door. He kneels next to the panel on the wall and starts typing. After a minute or so the door slides open. "Quick get inside!" Silvia doesn't hesitate to slip inside, checking to make sure the coast is clear once in.

"He said it would be easy. He wasn't joking." Azure said standing. His blue eyes flickered to green as he hit a button on the panel a laser grid popping up in the doorway blocking her way. Jade smiled, his face identical to Azure's in all but one way, Jade's face was cold. A metal door starts sliding down. Silvia looked around the room in shock. She fell for it. She cursed at herself silently as she turned to face Jade.

"I should have known it was you." She says as the door comes closing down shutting the room in darkness. Jade's muffled laughter could be just heard from the hallway. Very dim lights flickered on. A big man stood at the end of the hallway. He stood 7 feet tall and wore a perfect white suit. The hulking man turned around and looked at Silvia.

"Hello." She removed her sword, lighting up blood red from the fire dust shard installed in her hilt. The hatred burning in her eyes grew brighter with the glow of her sword.

"Who are you?"

"Don't you recall?" The huge man stepped out of the shadows. "You really should." Silvia takes a step back. He looks like Noir. But they had killed him years ago. Hadn't they?

"But... how?" Silvia asks. He simply laughs slightly.

"You interest me, why keep chasing the boy?" The huge man ignores her question, instead asks his own. Her eyes flicker over him, unsure if it's the real Noir.

"Why does it matter to you?"

"Well there's no reason for you to be so obsessed with him. You're a decent fighter, especially against Grimm. Furthermore as long as he is around you'll live in his shadow. Without him you'd been freed. I had taken him. Let him be." The man had a reasonable tone, a convincing one. Silvia opens her mouth to retort, but she finds herself believing what he's saying. Is that all she really is? A shadow under Azure? The man smiles. "You could be so much greater. A respected huntress, loved by many. A protector. Instead of Azure's... girlfriend." Silvia nods blankly, unsure of why she's suddenly agreeing with him. "Take Viridian and leave, we won't stop you. Just don't return. It will benefit everyone. And everyone will be happy." Silvia starts to lower her sword, but she stops halfway. He smiles warmly. "I understand your hesitation, you've been through much together. You aren't required to be here anymore though. You're free." Her eyes raced, unfocused. What the hell was going on with her? Her mind wouldn't meet up with her body. There had to be something she could do. The door opens behind them. Jade is gone and Viridian is there.

"What the heck is happening? Silvia?"

"Ah yes. Viridian. Silvia and you were just leaving. To live a better life." The grip on her sword tightened as she started muttering a spell from her book, one she considered useless until now. The man shifted his gaze to her and then presses his hand to his ear.

"What is she doing?" She looked up, the dazed look gone from her eyes.

"You're a fool..." she mutters, glaring daggers into him. "I'm not leaving." He sighs.

"Everything would've been much simpler if you had. At least for you."

"Lucky for you, cause I'm not a simple girl. And I'm leaving with everyone. Including Azure." Silvia retorts.

"Sadly you will not." The man responds.

"Look around my friend. You are outnumbered." Viridian said stepping into the room.

"So you two will fight me?" The man asks. "A shame really. I'd like to keep you alive."

"Who said you were walking out of here alive?" Viridian counters.

"Because I have other business. Time is money. And money is power. And power, power is key." The man walks to the far wall. "Have fun. I have other places to be." The wall opens up and he steps through. As he walks away the ceiling opens up and 5 hooded men fall from the ceiling. Silvia draws her sword. "You ready, Viridian?"

"Of course. Let's go." Silvia sends forth a plume of fire towards the hooded figures. Viridian pulls out his staff and spins it around blocking a few strikes from the nearest hooded figures blade. They exchange strikes back and forth for a moment before he steps back and flips a card at the hooded person. The person catches it and looks at the card.

"Aces over kings." Viridian jokes as it blows up in the person's face. Silvia traps a figure in a ring of Fire. She sheathes her sword and jumps over, pulling out her bow and arrow from her charm bracelet, shooting the man in the knee. When she lands, she knocks him out with a blow to the face. Viridian throws three more cards at a person's feet launching them into the air. He runs forward and slashes his staff knocking them out. The fire dissipates around Silvia. She shoots an explosive arrow at the feet of the rest of the men, knocking them against the wall. "Well that wasn't to hard." Viridian remarks back kicking one of them.

"Where's their leader?" Silvia asks, scanning the area while turning her bow back into a charm.

"The big guy? No idea. I was brought here and then they all left."

"He looked too much like Noir." Silvia says.

"Noir?" Viridian asked surprised, he'd heard the horror stories of the man. "Different world. Must be this world's Noir. He isn't ours." Viridian assures her.

"I know. It still makes me uncomfortable." She starts for the door.

"Makes sense. Makes sense."

"I went looking for you. By the time I got to your cell, you were gone. What happened?"

"I dunno. It turned into a weird ass elevator and went away. They must've known from the beginning you were out and about."

"Which means we won't have much time before they discovered we beat their goons."

"Okay that's true. So we run? Regroup elsewhere. Then come back?" Viridian asks.

"We're in here now. They're no way we'll be able to get back in."

"But even inside what can we do?"

"Sneak into a control center and find where they're hiding Azure."

"Alright. Let's hurry." She nods and cloaks them with her semblance. They go through the open door and walk down the hallway.

The large man was walking down a dark corridor when a voice speaks in his ear.

"They have taken out the men and are on the move."

"Alright. Keep me updated. Also send video B to my computer. Keep an eye on them. They have free rein of that floor and the two above and below."

"Yes sir."

"Oh but do make it seem like we're trying to keep them restrained." The man walks into an elevator. It climbs quickly and after a minute he excites the elevator and walks into the office. It was the office from earlier. A single person stands in the room, it's Azure. Azure stands near the desk looking around. He looks up when the man enters.

Silvia walks up to a panel with directions. "It says the control center is down this hall. If we use my semblance for a sneak attack, we'll have free rein over the building."

"Alright. Sounds good." A man comes running around the corner. Viridian throws a card and it hits him in the face. Popping slightly. The man falls over unconscious. "Do let us hurry though."

"Already on it." She sits down in the chair and starts pounding away at the keyboard. "Where are you, Azure?"

Azure frowns at the man standing before him. He's the spitting image of Noir. Yet he knew it couldn't be him. Not the least of which was that this was the wrong world. Still he was silent. Unsure of what to say.

"I know what you are thinking. That I look like Noir. You'll be happy to hear that I'm not him." Azure blinks in surprise. He knew that he wasn't Noir, but how did this man know about Noir and his relationship to him, did he keep tabs on his doppelgängers?

"Then who are you?" Azure asks slowly.

"Someone much more dangerous. Noir was child's play next to me. All he cared about was being a criminal. A powerful one yes, but he wasted our semblance on plans of mass death sabotage and so on. Noir even stooped so low to work for people. He didn't see it's potential. Instead of using it to gain power like I have he just instituted fear. What a waist!" The man growls the last word. He takes a breath and steadies himself. "However he did train you. That was something I shall be forever thankful for."

"Ha won't do you any good. I won't help you." Azure tells him.

"I think you will. You see Azure, your friends Silvia and Viridian are here. I currently have them running around several of the lower levels like lab rats looking for cheese. They won't find you in the computer like they plan to, because I never had records of you computerized. But they will look and look."

"Whatever. They won't be stopped by you, they'll get out." Azure counters. 'This man sure can talk can't he?' Azure thinks to himself. Azure watches him talk, listening. Why is he so confident that he can get him to work with him?

"You see Azure I have a way of controlling "magic". Things like that only happen if I allow it. Silvia's biggest strength is gone. I could kill them at anytime. I could gas them, I could seal them in an airtight room, I could use the turrets in the ceiling. So many ways. However I'll let them live if you help me."

"That's your plan? Blackmail me into helping? Not the best plan."

"Haha! Oh my dear child no. This is my plan." The man had walked all the way to his. While there he pressed a button and a video screen popped up. "Play." He commands and a video starts showing. It's a video of Silvia strapped into a machine screaming "That is the true fate that awaits Silvia if you don't help me, not painless death, but endless pain as I force her to use her powers for my will. Though Viridian will die. I have no purpose to keep him alive. Rest assured though, it will painful. The point I'm making is that I could've killed them whenever I wanted to. However I have no interest in that, I simply want your aid, if you don't help me, well." The man finshes speaking with a gesture at the video. Azure stood watching the video in shock. He couldn't let that happen to his Silvia. Damn this man! This must be why he can control magic. He has another Silvia strapped up somewhere and he's using her to control magic. Azure growled and looked into the face of the man. He was calm.

"Fine. I'll help you. What do you want." The man smiled and sat down.

"Many things Azure Požar. Many things. Now do you see why Noir was child's play?" Azure doesn't respond. "Whatever don't reply. Noir was always the popular one. Our parents always liked him better. He was always the smart one, but not anymore. Not anymore." Suddenly Azure understood everything. He wasn't Noir, he wasn't even his doppelgänger. This man was Noir's twin brother. Bela Oranžová.


	9. Chapter 9: Not What it Seems

Chase Part 9

Azure sighed, he couldn't believe what his life had come to. Eight years ago he thought he'd gotten away from Noir, left the life of serving him behind forever. Gone "straight" or as straight as an assassin could. Yet here he was working for Noir's brother. Azure shook his head, that was another unbelievable part, that Noir had a twin brother. What the hell? Still Azure couldn't let him hurt Silvia like the other Silvia in that video, so instead he'd do whatever Bela said. Azure paced the room back and forth, he remembered those six months eight years ago when he'd been good. Or tried to be. He'd hunted down several powerful terrorists and a few rapists, yet he'd kept his nose clean other than that. He'd killed a mere twelve people in that time. Then Noir got to him again, and twisted him back into what he'd been. A horrible monster. Azure had managed to stay afloat just barely. Though he kept sinking lower as time went on. By the time he entered Beacon, his last attempt to be a good person, he'd fallen into all his old habits but one. He never took that name back. He still didn't want to be feared, and that's what that name inspired… inspires. When he met Silvia they got close fast, he was close with the whole team, but never as close as he was with her. Until it ended. Though in many ways it never did end, it still hadn't. Everything was fine for awhile, the two of them and their team completed several hard missions, Azure started to feel like a normal teenager. The year was coming to an end when the attack happened. The worst attack that the city had ever seen. Though this one was solely done by humans. He himself responsible for many of it, whether he was in control or not. After that he fell apart. He left Beacon and Silvia, joined a new team and took on the White Fang. Azure remembered how he'd stopped joking, he'd mostly picked it up as a defense mechanism, to hide the pain but it had stopped working. That was until he met Viridian. Viridian was a good guy (If not a little conceited) but he didn't approve of Azure's methods. Viridian for all his faults, firmly believes everyone has the right to live. Azure couldn't change and they separated.

Azure stopped and looked at the pure white wall. He'd been a mess, hell he still was. Azure rolled up his sleeves and looked at the scars that covered his arms. He'd put them there himself. After leaving Beacon he hallucinated, heard voices, couldn't sleep, and most of all he just wanted to end it all. He never could though, someone always needed his help.

Azure sighed and sat down. He'd spent his whole life trying to save people, but he couldn't. Not everyone. But he could save Silvia and Viridian at the very least. A voice rang out through the rooms speakers, It was Bela.

"Your friends have one more chance to leave. If you can convince them to leave I will spare their lives. I suggest you hurry and convince them."

Silvia groans, slamming her fist on the keyboard. "Damnit!"

"What's the matter?" Viridian asked leaning back.

"As far as I can find, which is little, there are no files on Azure."

"None? But they took him right?"

"Yes, of course they did." She leaned back in her chair, staring at the screen. "But why not keep records of their enemy?"

"Maybe... maybe they're hiding him."

"Well yeah."

"Alright so he isn't in the computer. But we know he's here somewhere. So we can just look around." Silvia stands up, avoiding his gaze.

"I can't lose him, Viridian." Viridian looks over at Silvia.

"We won't. He's going to be fine."

"I know, but I've lost him so many times. When we first tried to be together, and the time after that. And I'm scared for his own safety, too."

"You should put a tracker on him." Silvia turns to look at him, smiling slightly.

"I'm not an over obsessive parent. Plan B. Let's go."

"Goody." Viridian says before running out of the room. Silvia follows him, praying that Azure is okay. After a few minutes of running they turn a corner and there Jade stands at the end of it, leaning against a doorway.

"Hey you two. How are you doing?" He calls down at the duo. Silvia pauses, silently cursing to herself.

"How'd you find us, Jade?"

"Um the cameras?" He says pointing at the surveillance cameras. She glances at the one he's pointing to.

"Probably should have done something about those."

"You don't say?" Viridian asks.

"It's time for you to leave." A voice says from behind them. Silvia's hand grips onto the hilt of her sword, pulling it out as she faces the voice behind her. It's Azure, he locks eyes with her, but he doesn't smile. From the other side of the hall Jade speaks.

"Bela got him to work with us. Isn't that nice?" The grip on her hilt tightens.

"How do I know it's not another one of your lackeys?" Silvia asks.

"Silvia it's me. For real. And I'm telling you to leave. It's for the best."

"Why? After we came all this way, you expect us to turn back? And why help them?"

"I do. Go back to where you came from. This is your last chance."

"What about you?" She lowers her sword, letting nothing but their words stand between them.

"I...I have to stay. There is nothing to do about it."

"What are they making you do?"

"As of now? Convincing you to leave. In the future? Nothing I haven't done before." Azure responds. Silvia blinks, almost as if to fight back tears.

"Please don't make me leave you." She begs, her eyes pleading. Azure clenches his jaw forcing himself to stay stone faced.

"You won't be leaving me. Just... being apart. Silvia you don't need me anymore. You can live without me."

"What about you? I know what you go through, Azure. Your breakdowns and thoughts. What if it gets worse?" Azure flexes his fingers on his left arm, where he sported the scars he'd put there himself lay.

"I'll be fine." He says.

"We both know you're lying." Silvia scoffs.

"Leave Silvia. This world isn't for you."

"It isn't for you either! God damn, Azure."

"I HAVE to stay! You HAVE to leave!"

"What the hell did they show you, Azure? What makes this world so much better than our own?"

"They showed me that I have no choice." Her eyes grow glassy from tears being blinked back.

"You know what? Fine." Azure watches her in silence. Viridian raises an eyebrow. "We'll leave. We'll leave, after everything Viridian and I have done to get here. We came because someone was so selfish to dig his nose into business that was never his to begin with!" She laughs shortly, walking towards him. "Hell, you're so selfish that you can't even acknowledge when others are willing to risk their lives to save you, even though you're too ignorant to not even see it!" She almost screams, but bites it back at the last second, a tear building up in the corners of her eyes. "Maybe I'm not the one that needs you, Azure," she continues, her voice cold and soft. "Maybe you just don't need me anymore." She glances over at Jade. "Where's the exit?" Jade smiles happily and presses a few buttons on his gauntlet. A portal opens up.

"This will take you home." Silvia sheathes her sword, the metallic noise as cold as the tension in the room.

"Let's go, Viridian." Viridian spares a look at Azure. He frowns. Something isn't right. But he doesn't say anything and he turns and walks through the portal. Silvia takes one last look at Azure, her face truly unreadable as she walks into the portal, never looking back. The portal closes.

"Hehe funny isn't it?" Jade asks smiling.

"What is?" Azure says stone faced.

"That she says that you can't tell when people are ready to die for you when that's exactly what you're doing for her. Not to mention why you came here in the first place." He walks off laughing leaving Azure alone in the hallway. He looks at the spot where the portal had been only moments ago. He had sold himself back into a life of horror. He'd never stopped being a killer, an assassin. But he knew that that wasn't what he's talents would be used for. He wouldn't be taking out criminals, he'd be removing obstacles in Bela's way. Slaughtering people, torturing people, being the person he'd stopped being when he was thirteen. But they were safe. Silvia was safe.

Silvia stumbled out of the portal and leaned against her desk. Viridian followed her out and looked at her. She was breathing heavily trying to get a grip on the situation. He was fairly surprised himself, but he was handling it better it seemed. By a lot.

"Are you alright?" He asks.

"Oh just fine." Silvia responds.

"Well that's not true."

"Sarcasm idiot." Silvia retorts. Viridian raises an eyebrow. Definitely not normal for her.

"You know that something was off right? That whatever was going on wasn't what he wanted."

"Ha, something is always off when he's involved." Well she wasn't wrong there Viridian thought to himself.

"He has to be helping them for a good reason."

"Probably to save his own skin."

"You know that isn't true, that's not how he is."

"Oh come on, when he was The Dragon he fought for himself."

"When he was twelve and thirteen? How can you judge him by that. He changed so much, he's been through to much to be the same person. That's not fair. And we have to find a way to help him. Maybe we can't go back without getting him killed, but we find people who can."

"There aren't a lot of people willing to help us." Silvia sighs.

"Yea, Trent won't help us after that baby disaster."

"I heard about that. Azure tried to kill Trent's kids?"

"No, more like remove them from Trent's care permanently to avoid them growing into monsters like their ancestors."

"Oh. My. And Aulora won't help after Selena."

"Yeah, that was bad."

"She attacked him."

"What about Alcatraz?"

"He's in retirement or something. Won't help anyone."

"Fine, then we find help from a different world, we have a lot to choose from."

"That might be the best idea you've ever had." Silvia says smiling. They were going to help Azure afterall.


	10. Chapter 10: Assembling the Team

Silvia and Viridian stepped out of the portal, into the first world Silvia and Azure traveled to. While the first time hadn't been on purpose, this trip was a different story. Viridian looks around, so this was the place Silvia and Azure had been to originally. Interesting place.

"Alright. The last time I saw him, he winked at me and jumped away on the roofs."

"So, like normal Azure."

"Yes. Just more flirtatious with me at our first encounter." "

Uh alright. Well, where is he?" Silvia glanced around the city surrounding them.

"You know Azure better than me. If he's an escaped convict, where would he hide?" Silvia asks.

"Hm Vale before the attack? He has that one place in our version of Vale, but here? He'd have about 10. Though they're smaller. At least that's what he had in Mystral."

"Do you know where they might be?"

"Mm. All over the place. Spread throughout so he'd have easy access to them. But none next to each other. It'd be fairly simple for me to map it out, if I had a map of this place."

"Then we'll find a map. An information center probably has one. That or the library."

"Damn library's." He mutters to himself. "Well let's go find one." Viridian leads them to a library. Looking around he round he goes to the map section. "Ah maps." Silvia grabs an atlas and flips to the map of each sector in Remnant. She takes a pen from a nearby jar and hands it to Viridian.

"Start marking." She tells him.

"Hm alright first just the kingdom of Vale." He flips to a map of just Vale which has page numbers for the city's in Vale. He slides his finger down the list until he finds the city they're in and flips to that one. Then he marks the center of the city and draws 5 lines out from the center equal distance apart. He draws a small circle about half way through each circle. Then Viridian tilts his head and frowns slightly. He starts Xing out circles until there's only one left. "Okay somewhere inside that about 10 mile radius is the base he's at."

"Then we better get searching." The two of them head to the area Viridian had marked off and start searching. Checking different buildings until they found a building where no one answers. Viridian looks around.

"This must be it." He says.

Silvia narrows her eyes. "I'll go in first. He'll recognize me."

"Alright. How are we getting in?"

"We could use the window."

"Mm sure. Want to be careful of his protections." Silvia nods, walking over to the window on the ground level. She mutters a spell that breaks the lock on the ledge.

"And away we go." Viridian mutters following her. Silvia lifts up the window and carefully slips inside. Silvia holds the window open for Viridian as she scans the area, hand over the hilt of her sword.

"I wouldn't want to fight him here." Viridian whispers standing quietly.

"Me too," she replies in the same hushed voice. "If something happens, I'll be ready."

"You think he knows were here?"

"Probably. But let's assume he doesn't."

"If you say so. Let's find him." Viridian starts walking silently through the room, moving slowly. Making sure to not make any noise. It's fairly easy as the rooms mostly empty. Silvia's left hand stays frozen over the hilt of her sword as she follows Viridian. The soles of her shoes touchdown lightly with little noise, enough for it to echo faintly. Viridian exits the room and as soon as he does the door slams shut behind him, separating the two. She turns and sees that they were separated.

"Viridian?!"

"Hey," he responds sounding tired "I think he knows!"

"Yeah he knows! Now who are you?" A voice comes in over a com, it's Azure.

"You may not remember me, but I'm one of the people who helped break you out." Silvia calls out.

"Oh yeah, I remember that. Now why are you here. I don't take kindly to strangers. Even if they are as pretty as you." Azure says.

"Jesus." Viridian says rolling his eyes. 'Yeah, this is Azure, alright,' Silvia thinks to herself.

"We need your help. My Azure was captured, and we can't get him out alone." She tells Azure. There's a pause before Azure answers. After a few moments the com comes back on.

"I'll come up. Wait there." The door opens and Viridian turns around to face her.

"Ah sudden Silvia!" He says mock scared.

"He didn't do anything to you?"

"Just separate us. It was so if he had to fight us it wouldn't be two on one." She replies with a simple nod of the head. Viridian may seem charismatic and light-hearted, but he has the mind of a strategist. A few moments later Azure enters the room and glances around.

"So, your friend got caught as well." Silvia turns her attention to Azure. He still looked the same since the last time she saw him, but cleaner in appearance.

"I was able to get close to him, but we were forced to leave. We can't go back to the world where he was captured."

"Another world? You guys trying to build up enough frequent flyer miles to go some place big?" Viridian chuckles at Azure's joke.

"More like we'll give you the miles you'll need. We just need the passengers to fill the flight."

"And you want me? Well I guess I owe you. I'll help."

"Thank you, Azure."

"No problem. Now I assume we aren't going in the three of us, who else is on the list?"

"We're about to get the fourth person now. If you'd like to find out, you could join us."

"Why not. Let me grab something and I'll be back." He walks out of the room but pops into it immediately after. "You said another world right?"

"Yeah, but this one's a bit different."

"Alrighty good. Just needed to make sure." He leaves again for a second. A few minutes pass.

"Maybe he's just peeing." Viridian says. "Or to get a few weapons."

"Eh probably." A few moments pass and Azure walks back in. He doesn't appear to be carrying anything new.

"Let's bounce."

Silvia glances over him. "Got everything?"

"Yup."

"Alright." The three of them head out.

The Silvia of this world sits in her tent, lit by the light of many candles. She overlooks her spell book, paging through the familiar scribbles from her youth. She stumbles upon the page that was torn out from the strangers, sending a memory of anger down her body. The feeling is suddenly washed away when a wave of strong magic fills the space around her village. Silvia pushes away from the desk and tracks down the source in the forest of Atlas. She finally stumbles upon a familiar visitor and a strange man with her.

"With two of you, I might need to a new book for all my fantasies." Azure says smiling, Viridian groans in the back. Silvia sighs.

"Do what you want, Azure. But right now we need to talk to Silvia here" Azure smiles slightly, Viridian moves in front of him.

"Silvia um of this world. We need your help." Silvia takes a step back, this world's version of her was a cruel reminder of her past.

"Who are you to ask of my help?" She asks. Viridian restrains himself from making a joke.

"Someone who could be a powerful ally." Viridian says. Her eyes move from Viridian to the other version of her.

"Why do you return here, after pulling such an act?"

"My friend, the one who aided me the first time, has been captured."

"Isn't that him?" She asks, pointing to Azure.

"Nope. I'm from this world sweety." Azure says winking. She narrows her eyes.

"Why should I help you? You defaced an ancient artifact important to my people."

"Because we returned that artifact to you," Silvia replies, taking a hesitant step forward. "I admit that our actions were wrong, and I'm sorry. But one spell over many is a fair trade." Viridian and Azure exchange looks of some confusion. Neither were there to see this. This world's Silvia stares daggers into Silvia, who surprisingly holds her ground. After a few moments, the magician speaks up.

"I never did find that spell useful... I see you have found use in it."

"So will you help us?" Silvia asks.

"As long as my people will not be harmed, then yes."

"That I can promise." Viridian says. Though inside he knows that they can't really promise anything. Silvia nods. "Thank you, ma'am." The other Silvia shakes her head.

"Don't call me ma'am. That's a term for my mother."

"Agreed." Viridian says.

"Alright, what do you want us to do exactly? Other than save your friend." Azure asks.

"Take down the organization," Silvia replies. "Viridian and I can't go into that world. So we need you to take it down and save Azure in the process."

"Sounds like a lot. Though I'm sure we can handle it."

"My magic can subdue them easily," the other Silvia says, conjuring a black ball of magic in her palm.

"Mm not so much actually. They seem to have something that dampens magic." Viridian says.

"Wait really?" Silvia asks in surprise, having not noticed that herself.

"Well yeah, it was obvious right?"

"Yeah, I guess, but they are incredibly strong. And be careful of the one called Jade. He looks like Azure, but his eyes are green." Silvia tells them.

"Man, this might get confusing." Azure groans.

"Agreed. This will be very difficult." The other Silvia says.

"Which is why we're giving you all the info we have on that other world."

"I suppose we're taking him by force."

"Unless you can sneak him out. He will most likely be heavily guarded" Silvia says.

"No. Azure's right. They'll have to use force. On him." Viridian says. He looks over at Silvia and realizes she still thinks he'll come willingly. Whatever it is that's keeping him there won't have disappeared. Hopefully the two of them together will be enough to stop him. Fighting Azure is suicide at best to most. But an alternate Azure and Silvia? They have the best chance of anyone. Her magic even weakened with his skill, that might do it, at least enough to get him home. Viridian looked back at the whole group. He was never as good a fighter as Azure, sure he was good, but not like Azure. But he had his brain. That's his strength. Azure couldn't understand not having it all. Azure was perfect and Viridian wasn't. No matter how much he pretends to be. "However. A better idea would be to find what's keeping him there. And remove that." The other Silvia rolls back her sleeves.

"I believe I have an idea that will solve both our problems."

"What's that?"

"Your semblance is invisibility, correct?" She asks Silvia.

"Yeah. Where you going with this?"

"There is a spell we recently created. It allows us to copy the semblance of the target without the side effects." Silvia's eyes grew wide.

"So you can use my semblance without growing weary."

"Bingo."

"A little convenient, I like it." Azure said smiling a cat like grin.

"Agreed. We should also check on Azure. Find his location. Make sure you don't run into him unless absolutely necessary." Viridian added.

"I can use the spell on myself and one other person," she nods to Azure. "We can slip in and find his location. Figure out what's making him tick."

"Alright. Let's hurry. Don't want to dawdle." Viridian said. Silvia cracked her knuckles.

"Let's do this before I open the portal."

The Silvia in black clads stood up. She extended her hands to The other version of herself and began the spell. An orange mist surrounded Silvia, causing her to feel a bit lightheaded. The mist then floated back to her, using her one arm to extend the other half of the mist to Azure. "Oh wow. To spoopy five handle." He mutters as the most covers him. The mist seeps into them. Silvia's knees give out and she starts to drop to the floor. "Hey what's wrong?" Azure asks as Viridian kneels next to her.

"I forgot to mention one of the side effects: a loss of energy from the transferred person."

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked, looking up at her other self.

"I figured you wouldn't have done it."

"I'll do anything if it means getting him back," she replied, determination in her voice.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of her. You two get going." Viridian tells them. Giving Silvia a concerned look. She might kill herself to save Azure. Silvia takes a slip of paper out of her pocket.

"Here are the coordinates," she says, handing it to her other self. "Be careful, they have some kind of recognition technology to track down people." She nods before using the coordinates to make a portal.

"Be careful." Viridian says as the two step through. She nods before heading inside with Azure.

"Will they be okay?" Silvia asks Viridian, looking up at him.

"Perhaps. I don't know. Either way we need to get ready for the next step."

"Which is?"

"Very dangerous." Silvia looks out at the portal as it disappears.

"I can't lose him, Vir..."

"And if everything works. You won't have to." Viridian tells her. Silvia pulls herself closer to him, forcing back tears as the portal's glow fades into nothing.

 _Authors note: Yet again a bit slow. But for those of you keeping up that's both my stories at one time. Hopefully you enjoy both of them as much I did writing them. Of course this was written with the help of a close friend. Thank you and have fun._


	11. Chapter 11: The Cue

Chase part: 11

A scream cuts through the building as the owner of it is cut down. Azure stands in the lobby of Bela's last obstacle before this world falls. Everything else had been handled. Azure had been ordered to whip out the old leaders of the world. And that's what he was doing. He moved quickly towards the top where they were struck hiding like mice. Grim thoughts flew through his mind as he ascended the buildings staircase cutting down the guards. Normally he'd keep them alive. Yet you could not this time. Orders. He jumped over a guard cutting his head off in the process. Landing he moves shooting another in the face, never even pausing. He'd gone through so many ups and downs, yet it still made him feel dirty to be doing this in this way again. Suddenly he skids to a stop. He'd reached the door. Behind it sat twelve horrified world leaders. Bela had told him about their failure to save the world they lead. But Azure saw through it, they were trying to do what was right. They were just going about it in the wrong way. They didn't deserve death. Yet here he was.

Azure kicks down the door shooting them down one at a time, a few stand up in an attempt to get away. None of them even make it a foot before a bullet finds them. Their bodies topple to the floor one after another.

"Twelve bullets and twelve dead. I'm so happy to have you working with me." It was Bela. He stood in the doorway watching Azure look at the bodies littering the floor. Azure didn't respond. His eyes swept the room. He'd killed countless monsters in his life, rapists, terrorists, and murderers. He'd done all that very purposely. Never before had he killed people he deemed innocent of his own free will. Until now.

Silvia walks through the building, using a spell to alter her clothing to a more appropriate setting. "How do you people deal with clothes like this?" She asks, stretching the tight jeans against her legs.

"What do you mean? It's so much easier to move in jeans and jackets." Azure says glancing down the halls. They seemed to be alone. That other Silvia, the one that had saved him and that guy Viridian hadn't said a lot. But that green guy wanted Azure to also handle a few side things while they were rescuing their Azure.

"I'm more used to the openness of my robes," Silvia replied cutting into his thoughts. "

Heh. Well this is much better I assure you." Azure says.

"If you say so." She rolls her eyes. "So where exactly are we going?"

"Uh fair question. Where do you think we should start? Destroying the organization or saving the not as awesome me?"

"Save the other Azure," she answers, looking around the corner of a hallway. "And I'm sure you're right about you being better. When I first met him, he was an obnoxious liar." She motions for him to follow, as the coast was clear.

"Aw well thanks. It's nice you like me so much."

"I'm just getting used to you. Now if I were keeping a prisoner captive, where would they be?"

"The cells." Azure says. Silvia nods and points to a directory. The two walk over and check it out.

"Well, I don't see cells on here. But I see detention holding facility. Probably for the security of the building."

"Ugh well I guess that'll work." He says heading off in that direction humming slightly.

"So we're from the same world then?" She asked, eyes kept forward.

"Yup, never heard of you though."

"Nor I you. But in Viridian's world, we know each other." "

Mm. Very well to. If you catch my drift." He says winking, the he frowns slightly "are you sure you haven't heard of me? I'm famous, in a way." Her eyebrows furrow.

"I think I heard something about you in the news. Aren't you called the Dragon?" He perks up slightly.

"Close. Dragoon." A look of confusion crosses her face.

"Why Dragoon?"

"Pf. Don't ask me. Ask the press. What kind of melodramatic bitch do you have to be toy give yourself a name like Dragoon?"

"Fair enough." Silvia says smiling slightly. They reach some stairs. Azure points down the stairs.

"Welp this is the way."

"I'll lead," she replies as she heading down the steps.

"Well duh. Ladies first." He says following her down. Silvia carefully walks down, head held high in case they ran into anyone. She reaches the bottom and looks around. "You see anything?" She asks, making room for Azure at the bottom.

"I don't think so. Let's keep going I don't think we've hit the holding area yet." Silvia nods.

"Just keep your guard up." She continues forward, making a list of spells in her mind for certain scenarios. The two walk, the silence pressing in on them as they move forward. Silvia suddenly stops walking, a strong wave of familiarity flows through her body. She holds her head, eyes squinted in focus.

"Headache? Take some Aleve."

"No. I sense something magic related." She lifts her head. "Something's wrong." She starts picking up her walking pace, using the magic within her as a guide.

"Uh okay?" Azure mutters following her as she speeds up. Maybe this is it. Viridian mentioned Azure was staying for a reason. Is this is the reason? Silvia skids around a corner and stops. "Oh my god." Silvia whispers. Before her was a girl just like her, strapped to some kind of contraption.

"Oh hot damn. What's that?" The girl lets out a scream as the machine makes a noise. Some purple essence made its way through tubes from the girl to the machine.

"Whatever it is, it's hurting her. Help me get it off her!" Silvia crys running to her side, trying to rip off the restraints.

"Wow wait hold up. Look we can't just rip it off of her! We don't know how it works. Give me a sec." Azure slips behind the machine and pulls off a panel and starts working on something.

Silvia glances over at him, silently praising him for keeping cool. She instead tends to the girl, checking her pulse. She tries to use magic to help re-energize her, but finds her spell cut short. "Why is my magic not working?"

"Well what does it feel like the machines doing to her?" She watches as another pulse of purple rushes through the tubes. She feels a strong essence coming from it. Only when she places her hand on it does she pull back in disgust.

"This is magical essence...," she manages out.

"Uh interesting. Um I mean horrible. Yeah horrible." Azure shakes his head at his own idiocy. "This is advanced stuff right here. It might take me awhile." Footsteps are heard in the distance. Silvia spins around in horror.

"Crap! Azure use the semblance Silvia gave u- Wait, that's magic based! It might not work!" Silvia started to grip her hair in panic.

"Okay well what's your semblance? Can't you fight?" She looks over, worry filling her eyes. "I can fight."

"Can you? Don't sound to sure." He says yanking on some wires.

"My semblance is darkness and shadows," she replied, looking away from him. "It's nothing I'm proud of, I don't like to fight. Not if I don't have to."

"Sounds very useful, I don't see the problem. Either way you'll have to, my hands are full." A small group of armed guards arrive. "Hey look your playmates." Silvia looks back at the girl in the machine screaming in pain. Azure was right she had to fight. Filled with determination, Silvia stepped in front of her defensively. "You will not be getting near her." The men exchange glances, one presses a button on his gauntlet. The rest draw guns and aim at Silvia. Azure glances over for a second to watch. This is going to be tight. Just a little bit more and he'll have it. Silvia closes her one fist, darkness enveloping all of the men before her. Blinded, she proceeds to melt into the shadows. She appears next to one, disarming him with an elbow to the chin. He grunts and stumbles back. The others turn as one, two punch at her. By the time the punch lands, she's gone, taken over by the darkness. She appears behind one and kicks him in his groin and pushes him over. Her eyes start to glow an inhuman shade of red. Several more men are running down and joining the fight. A few are attempting to shoot her. The one closest grabs her and throws her into the wall. Silvia lets out a grunt as she crumbles to the floor. Rage like no other fills every fiber of her being. She forces herself up, both fists clenched. A relatively large group has arrived outnumbering them ten to one. Suddenly the machine groans and the girl falls out. Azure catches her quickly and leans her against the wall. "Hey kids!" Everyone turns and looks at Azure. He whispers to Silvia out of the corner of his mouth. "They're blocking me. You can get out. I can't. Plus I have a little trick I can't do with you here. To dangerous. Just go to the floor above us. I'll be up in a second." She looks back at him.

"You think I'm leaving you behind?"

"Well I can't do my trick if you don't. Take the other girl and go." Her face softens for just a moment, before being replaced with a sad smile. "You're a pain, you know that?"

"Well I could've told you that. Trust me I'll be fine." It's hard for Silvia to trust someone, but for once, she actually believes what he says, she grabs the girl.

"I know you will." Silvia looks back at the guys, then at Azure. She scoops up the girl and steps into the shadows on the wall. Azure glances around and smiles at the group of men.

"So you're probably slightly confused. I don-" one of them fires at him and he curses rolling behind the machine and taking cover from the gun fire. "Okay then be rude." He focuses as the men approach slowly firing on him. He holds up his hands sensing for the water pipes. Slowly the pressure rises and the walls start to shake. The men stop and look at each other. Suddenly a huge explosion of water bursts through the wall quickly filling up the floor with water. Azure has no problem moving through the water, he moves quickly knocking their guns away and swimming towards the stairs knocking people out on the way. He quickly ascends the stairs and gets to the next floor up. He's complete dry.

Silvia fuzzed to life at the top of the stairs, looking down as she was water fill the floor. She sighs. She shouldn't have doubted him. As she starts to run, she begins to panic. Where was she going to go? If that was where they held the girl, where was that other Azure?

"Uh. Didn't she wait? Dang it." Azure glances in both directions. Then sighs and runs down the hall in the opposite direction. He heads back the the detention cells. Azure smiles. Now that he was alone he could do what Viridian had asked him to do. Sliding to a stop next to a door he looks inside and saw a bed and toilet. He presses a few buttons and found what he was looking for. Pressing the enter key the door starts to shut. He jumps inside before it closes fully. As soon as the doors shut the cell starts moving. The cell finally stops and the doors open. It was Bela's office. Running into the empty room he glances around and got to the computer. "Hello computer."

Silvia had come upon a room labeled Azure. "That was easy." She muttered to herself pushing open the door, a ball of darkness in her hand. Her body relaxed when she saw no one was inside. "What the hell? Where is he?"

Azure's hands moved quickly. He pulled up all the security cameras. He spoke to himself as he worked. "Uh let's see, do we need these? Nope." He hit a few buttons and it sent a shutdown code. Then he flipped a switch and looked through the files. They really didn't have anything on that other Azure. Viridian wanted him to take this place down. Shouldn't be to hard. A quick search told him this place was currently lightly manned. Weird. He stood up and started walking to the door but stopped. He pulls out a knife and sticks it in the desk. Then he runs out the door.

Silvia searches the room carefully for any clues as to where Azure would be. They needed to find him soon. The guards could be notified of the magic device any moment. Azure stands near the last floor in the building breathing heavily. He'd gone through the building setting charges from the office he was just in all the way down. Now he needed to get the other two and find Azure and go. He starts climbing again. He remembered seeing Silvia on the cameras before he'd shut them down. After a few minutes of searching he finds her. "Hey Silvia! You find him yet?" She panted for air, her brow slick with sweat. "I haven't. Have you?"

"No. He wasn't on the cameras either. I don't think he's here."

"Where the hell would he be then? He has to be here!"

"Well maybe he's been deployed? He's being forced to work right? Come on we have to go. They won't be able to find us anymore or send out alerts but we don't have much time." she scans his face.

"Okay let's go." She adjusts her grip on the girl before heading for the exit. Nodding he leads the way out of the building. A few people attempt to stop them but Azure knocks them out before they get to far. They burst out the doors.

"We need to get as far away as possible!" Azure calls back.

"Why? It's not like the building is going to blow up!"

"Wellll..." She shoots him a look. "You did, didn't. You?"

"Hey I was told to!" He yells back defensively. "But yes." She groans.

"Shit, fine" He chuckles as they get farther away. When they're far enough away he turns around.

"Okay let's do this." He pulls out a button smiles and presses it. A series of explosions starting from the top and going down come from the building it shakes and glass shatters. The building starts to sway as fire starts billowing from it as more explosions come from inside. Silvia watches, the explosions lighting up her face. "How many did you set?"

"Hopefully enough. The explosions from the knives aren't big. But put them in the right places and they do a lot of damage. Viridian wanted me to destroy the building. He said it was important. Something about psychological warfare or something." She sighs. "Guess it's a good tactic. We need to lay low. Maybe we can get information out of her when she wakes up."

"Yeah, yeah you're right. The forest probably." Casting one last look at the building slowly falling apart they run off again.

"This worlds about to be mine. How does that make you feel Azure. Knowing the part you played in it." Bela asked Azure who stood off to his left. The two were standing at the top of a skyscraper. The room was filled with the dead bodies of the people who once ran the world's government. Azure doesn't answer. "Silence? About right I suppose. I've been working on this for a while now. Setting up the groundwork for a complete shift of power. All that was left was, well." He finishes gesturing at the bodies. "Thank you for that by the way." Jade comes strolling in. He looks around with a smile on his face before speaking.

"Sir. I need to speak to you." Bela turns and gestures for Azure to leave. Is stoic expression in place Azure walks from the room.

"Yes what is it?"

"Apparently someone is attacking the main building in the main world." Jade tells Bela.

"Oh really now?"

"Yes. Two new people. A different Silvia and Azure."

"We know who sent them."

"They found… her."

"Did they now? Very well. This news doesn't leave this room. Go remove anyone else who knows."

"One more thing."

"Yes?"

"The building, they destroyed it. There are no confirmed survivors." Bela takes a slow breath at these words.

"Very well. Go. Do what I told you to." Bela turns back to the window as Jade walks out. So Silvia and Viridian had come up with a plan to help their beloved friend after all. The loss of the girl isn't horrible. That can be worked around. However the building. Very troublesome. This'll be the work of Viridian. Very few people seem to realize how dangerous that boy is. Physically his nothing impressive or unique. But he has a good mind. Far more strategic than Azure. The building will be his idea. Destroy it and remove the symbol of fear it represented in that world. Now the people have seen the foundation get hurt. Someone has damaged that image. Many of the men and women he brought to help take this world will be shaken. If he hadn't been prepared for this, it might have destroyed him. Yet Bela was prepared, and ready to ditch the pretense of the foundation all together as is. Viridian's game of chess won't play out how he hopes.


	12. Chapter 12: The Calm

Chase part 12

Viridian sits looking at the message that Azure had sent him. They hadn't found Silvia's and his Azure, but they found what must have been keeping him there. Another girl who looked like Silvia, severely weakened and tortured into using her powers. Bela most likely told Azure that if he didn't help him, the Silvia he knew would replace the used one. The next step would be the hardest. They'd already started to take Bela's organization down. The building was the first step. The next would be take the only power they had left, their influence. With that done, the group could easily cut the head from the snake. If anything were to go wrong, he had a back up plan. The danger of traveling to the other world had been lifted.

"Silvia! It's time we go join the other two." He calls to Silvia who stands up, holding her head. She was still weak from the spell the other her had used to mimic her semblance.

"Why? What happened?" She asks, taking her time to go join him.

"The first step is done. We join them and go up from there. Bela's building is gone, greatly lowering the risk we faced."

"Do we know their location? It'll make it easier for me to portal us there."

"No need. They're opening one for us." And is if on cue a portal opens. On the other side a shaky imagine of Azure and the other Silvia come into focus. "After you." Viridian says with a smile. She gives a weak smile back.

"Thanks for everything, Viridian." Silvia heads into the portal, dropping her hand to her side. He follows her close behind. Once they're both through the portal shuts behind them.

"Well well, how's it hanging." Azure asks. The other Silvia lowers her hands as the glow fades from the portal.

"Still recovering," Silvia replies. "But better. How'd the mission go?"

"It was a bit explosive," the other Silvia replies.

"Heh. Yeah it was. So what's the next step? Your Azure wasn't there." Azure tells the two of them.

"I figured he might not be. I never really thought we'd get him now." Viridian replies. Silvia's face shifts and looks at Viridian.

"What do you mean he's not here?" She asks sharply.

"We didn't find him. They had rooms labeled with his name but nothing inside. But we did find... someone else."

"I thought we'd find someone...interesting. Silvia- uh the chief one. Is it possible to get a list of the most advanced worlds?" Viridian asks. She nods.

"I believe so. And just call me Danvers. It will make this less confusing."

"Why didn't we come up with this earlier?" Silvia asks.

"Good question. And Danvers get that for me. In the meantime I need a place to work. While I do that, you three have to set up this world against Bela, or more accurately the Fetere Foundation. He'll want to retake it. It's currently in limbo after facing that massive crisis. This is the time to strike. If we can remove his presence from this world, he won't be able to come back." Viridian explains.

"And how do you suppose we do that? They're the leading company in all of this Remnant for alternate reality research." Danvers says.

"And they just lost their main building with all their biggest projects. Two of you have magic and one talks a lot. If you guys can make it seem like you have something beyond what they had, it will win them over. Rich people want things that make them richer." Viridian gives his head a slight tilt. Silvia looks at the two other members of their group. She had to admit it, but she was impressed, and a little intimidated, but Viridian's sudden leadership. "So get to it. We have to cut them off before they can regain their footing. Send me the list as soon as possible." Danvers nods before heading off to her makeshift station to get the list together, Viridian not far behind. Silvia walks up to Azure.

"What's this thing you guys found?" Azure glances over at Silvia's question.

"Viridian said he thought we'd find this. He didn't tell you?"

"No." Silvia looks in the direction Viridian had walked. "I guess not."

"Uh. Weird. Follow me." He gets up and leads her to the back.

"He's not usually like this."

"How is he normally like?" Azure asks as they get farther back into the forest.

"Jokester, very rarely serious. Kind of like you, except without the dark past. Well, my Azure. I don't know what your past is like." She sighs. "What I'm trying to get at is I'm worried. I've never seen this side of him. I'm usually the leader and now I'm not."

"Uh." He raises an eyebrow at the dark past but doesn't comment on it. "Well, he seems to know what he's doing. Ahead of that Bela bad guy at any rate."

"I hope you're right. So where are we going?"

"Just right here." They get to a back area and Azure pulls the curtain covering it up. Inside is a girl who looks very similar to Silvia, she is ;aying on the ground passed out. Silvia stares at her, not even feeling a presence of magic from her.

"What happened to her?" Her voice was quiet.

"I'd say they drained her of her energy and used it for something." Silvia walks closer to this other version of her and kneels next to her. Her complexion was far paler than her own, dark circles forming under her eyes. Her hair is dark, hiding the features from afar.

"This is..." She stood up. "I can't."

"Yeah. It's pretty horrible honestly. Do you think your Azure knew?" He asks kneeling next to Silvia. Silvia's mind flashed back to what Azure had said to her before she left.

"Maybe they used her as bait. Used... me?" She gasps, suddenly understanding the reasoning behind Azure helping Bela.

"What do you mean, used you?" He asks.

"What if they showed him this version of me?" She turns to him, pointing at the girl passed out. "He joined them to save me." A small tear falls down her cheek.

"They did. They used you. I told you he only did it for a good reason." It was Viridian. "You guys gotta get going. Danvers got me what I needed." Silvia nods, quickly wiping the tear from her eyes.

"You guys go ahead. I'll be there in a minute." Silvia mumbles. Azure looks between them shrugs and walks out. Viridian stays for a moment.

"Silvia?" She is still facing the other version of her.

"You were right. All this time, I thought he gave up on me. But he hadn't. She's the proof."

"I don't think he knows how to give up on people. He's got a saving people problem." She looks over her shoulder at him.

"What do you mean?"

"Most people just see that he's spent his life killing. But really, hasn't he done all that to save people. But instead he keeps losing people. Pushing him further down a dark path. He's a classic example of a good person doing the wrong thing."

"One of them being joining Bela to save me, even though it isn't me." She looked back at the girl. "Does that mean he still cares? First he jumped after me when I fell into a portal. Now this."

"Maybe he does care. Maybe he thought that was the only way to save you. But right now we need to focus on what's important, and that's saving him. Then we can ask him those questions." Viridian says. Silvia nods and with one last look at the girl who looks so much like her goes and joins Danvers and Azure. "See you soon, Silvia." Viridian mutters to himself.

Silvia, Danvers, and Azure walk onto the Main Street and look around. Azure spots a sign and walks over. "Look, guys. The Fetere Foundation is having a press conference later today to clear up their future as a company. Seems like the perfect time to jump in and destroy them." Azure says. "Also Fetere is worried about the future!" He says laughing. The other two smile slightly.

"Agreed. What kind of 'tech' can we show though?" Danvers asks.

"I have an idea. But I need a portal back to my world." Silvia responds. Danvers nods and opens a portal for Silvia. She steps through and a few moments later she comes back out holding a weird looking gun.

"Hot damn! What's that sweet thing?" Azure asks rubbing his hands together.

"A flamethrower. I was hoping you could make some modifications. My Azure made this. You press this button," Silvia tells them as she points at a button near the stock. "Shifts the gun into a sleeve and glove combination that spits flames out of the palm section."

"That's advanced." Azure mutters in awe.

"That's magic." Danvers mutters with a light growl. Silvia catches the tone but doesn't say anything about it.

"Yes. It's both. I was hoping you could make more and add some more functions."

"Ahhh yeah. Working with a base it shouldn't be a problem. If I had to go from scratch it'd be a different story though."

"Good. Let's get working. We'll do the magic." Silvia tells him. The three set to work on setting up modifications to the gun. After a few hours they finish and Azure is holding two of them. He presses the buttons and they shift to sleeves, one on each arm.

"Food?" Azure asks hopefully.

"Yes. I believe it's time for food Silvia." Danvers agrees. Silvia laughs slightly.

"What about pizza?"

"Sounds good!"

"What's a… pitsa?" Danvers asks confused.

"Oh god." Both Silvia and Azure mutter. "Come on. We'll show you," Azure tells her. The group heads back into town and look around until they find an pizza parlor. Heading inside, they find that no one is around except the worker, who turns around and walks forward quickly. He takes their orders and they sit down at a table.

"What exactly was it that you ordered me? A cheese pitsa?" Danvers questions.

"First off. Pizza. Second cheese. All pizzas have cheese. But this is, I dunno basic. A good place to start."

A few moments later the man comes out with the pizzas and sets them down in front of them.

"Enjoy!" He says before walking back inside.

"Thank you!" Silvia reaches for her slice but stops. "Wait, she should have the first bite." Azure stops, his pizza halfway to his mouth.

"Wha?" She punches Azure lightly in his arm. "Really? She's never had pizza before and you're going to rob this moment from her?"

"No." He says, a slight pout in his face. She smiles.

"It's okay, big guy. Go ahead Danvers." Danvers nods, slowly reaching for the single slice that Silvia had ordered for her. She raised it to her mouth and took a careful bite.

"Well?" He asks, waiting with baited breath to start eating his own. She swallowed the bite, and her eyes instantly lit up.

"Oh Tanulus' Majesty, this is amazing!" Silvia chuckles.

"Told ya. Now you can eat." The group eats and when they finish they get up to leave.

"I'll pay. I'll meet you two outside." Silvia tells them.

"Sounds good." Azure leads Danvers out of the restaurant to a bench where they wait for Silvia.

"Thank you for suggesting this place," Danvers tells him as she leans against the building.

"No problem. Pizza is always good."

Silvia popes out from the restaurant. "Bill's paid. Let's go destroy a business's reputation."

"Sounds so mean when you say it like that." Azure jokes.

"They messed with us, first. Now we mess with them." Silvia's voice came out colder than she intended, mainly because of her newfound knowledge of what they did to her Azure.

"Well that's true. Very true." A few minutes later the three arrive at the press conference. They stand at the back of the crowd. The president of the Feter Foundation steps forward in front of a podium.

"Hello. And thank you for coming." Everyone starts to clap, except for the three of them. They knew what they were capable of. The women continues to talk about the future and how they'll grow from here.

"Alright. It's time kiddos. Stay on alert and out of sight. It's time to do my thing." Both Silvia and Danvers nod. Azure moves quickly through the crowd and towards the stage. He slips behind the stage and plugs some things into the speakers. Smirking, he cuts the volume to the Presidents mike. Danvers smirks when the volume goes down.

"He has skill."

"And you have a thing for him," Silvia saus smirking.

"That's absurd! I do not!" Danvers says defensively.

"I am the same way with my Azure. I know." Silvia says as the two of them look back at the stage. Azure jumps up onto the stage with his own mike smiling proudly.

"Hey folks!"

"Who are you?" The president asks.

"I'm this worlds salvation. These guys?" He points at the Fetere Foundation people, "are dooone for. Me and my people have better tech, tech that is way more useful to you guys than travel between alternate universes!" Silvia smiles, surprised at how well Azure was doing. "And not just more useful, it'll be available for commercial use!" There's muttering from the crowd. Azure smiles, he'd realized that the average citizen wasn't allowed usage of the alternate world tech. "Now you're probably wondering what it is we have that just shames those old hacks. Well it's this." He flicks his wrists and the weapons shifted from their long sleeve mode to their small gun modes. Another wave of muttering met the reveal. "There's two types. With more to come. Water and fire. Both with their own uses. And they'll be available to the public soon!" Azure takes in surrounding mass. The crowd was nodding and a few clapping. A few people start throwing out questions.

"What about the Fetere Foundation?" Azure glances at them. He can't exactly tell them the truth behind them, he'd lose credibility.

"Well we would be willing to absorb them into our group. We're small, only a few people large. Yet we have the tech and ideas to start something huge. Fetere Foundation did some interesting things in their time. But now we need something new. You do! Now that does bring this conference to a close. You'll be hearing from us very soon." Azure smiles and waves, several people cheer. He turns and leads the president off the stage and backstage. Silvia takes Danvers' arm, pushing through the crowd to meet Azure backstage. "Hey kiddos." Azure says when he sees them.

"I demand to know what is going on!" The president shouts. Silvia steps closure to her.

"We're trying to help calm everything down. This was a tragedy." She motions to the demolished building. "Do you want them to go into chaos?"

"Of course not! But trying to destroy my company? What purpose does this serve."

"Is it really yours?" Azure asks raising an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

the President asks frowning.

"We both know Bela was really in charge." Danvers tells her.

"And what Bela is doing." Silvia adds, her tone serious. The President pauses and looks at the three of them.

"He'll have me killed."

she finally says. Fear showing in her eyes.

"We can protect you. Without this company, he doesn't have any power here." Azure points out.

"You may be right. Yet that new weapon he has. That boy who looks like you." She points at Azure. "He showed me what he could do before he left. Told me that if anything happened that's what would be coming for me. Said 'it will find you, no matter where you are. And it will destroy you.' That's a direct quote. But you're right. I'll help you get rid of the Foundation, it's time for something new." Silvia's facial expression turns cold.

"Did you say 'it'?" She asks, her voice monotone.

"Yes. I believe he described it as a weapon. He's certainly not like this boy here. I watched him do... things." A visible shudder went through the president. "Trust me, you're either seriously messed up inside to do things like that, or not human."

"He's not messed up, okay? He was manipulated as a young kid. None of this is his fault. He never wanted this. Azure never wanted his parents to die, and now he's stuck in this hell!" Her voice cracks as tears fall from her eyes. She stops, the silence sharp like a knife. "I-I have to go." She wiped her tears with the back of her hand as she walked back outside.

"Her point is, he's had it rough." Azure says. He glances back, so that's what she meant about dark past. "Thank you for helping us. We need to go do a few things then we'll be back."

"Alright. I'll be here." She hands Azure a paper. "Apologize for me, hm?" He nods and she walks away.

"Let's hurry okay?" Azure says.

"Don't you think we should give her some time to cool down?" Danvers asks, Azure glances at Silvia.

"Yeah. You go back and update Viridian. I'll wait here." Danvers follows his gaze to Silvia, hugging herself on the sidewalk.

"Be gentle." She gives him one last look before walking back to their base. Sticking his hands in his pockets Azure slowly walks closure to Silvia. He stands a bit away watching her. The wind scattering her brown hair across her face. A small streak ran down her one cheek.

"Bela called Azure an object," she mutters after a few moments of silence. "He doesn't even consider him human."

"No. Why would he? To him, Azure really is just a weapon."

"Azure's more than that." Her grip on herself tightens, her fingers digging into her sleeve. "I can't stand the thought of Bela torturing him like that."

"Sounds like he's been through a lot. He'll make it out alive."

"I'm scared he won't." Azure gives Silvia a sad look. "We'll get to him soon." Silvia manages to look up at him, her face broken, yearning to be fixed. "I hope so. As soon as I get there, I'm pounding Bela's face into the cement."

Danvers walks into camp, pulling her jacket closer to her as a cold breeze drifts in. "Viridian? You here?" Viridian walks out from his workplace.

"Ah good you- where's the other two?"

"The president gave us info regarding Azure and Bela's treatment of him," she explains. "Silvia broke down and Azure is taking care of it."

"Ah. Did things go well otherwise."

"Very."

"Alright good." Viridan says nodding.

"How have things been back here?"

"Good. I found the next world we need to go to. Though, we won't all be going."

"What do you mean?" Dancers asks, her eyebrow raised.

"Someone needs to stay here to continue to work on the set up."

"Okay, so what does the mission involve? We can figure out who stays behind based on th-."

"Azure's staying behind." Viridian says cutting across her. Her face fills with confusion.

"Why? His skills are useful."

"It's important. Trust me." Her eyes scan over him in mild suspicion.

"Alright."

"When they get here, I'll explain it to them. Then the three of us will go."

"To be honest with you, Viridian, I thought Silvia would be leading this whole operation." Her hands crossed in front of her chest. Viridian sighs and leans against a tree, a frown on his face.

"Normally she would be, you're right."

"Why the change, then?" She asks, mimicking him as she leans against a tree opposite to him.

"Silvia is... invested in this. Deeply. I don't think she can separate herself from that. Most people don't know this, because, well, I spend most of my time doing card tricks or making bad jokes, but I'm pretty good at strategy. I've never lost a game, any game. This needs someone who's able to disengage, make the hard calls. Bela is smart. To him, this is nothing more than chess. And we need someone who's able to play on his level. Silvia can lead a team into a battle. But it's not the same as fighting a war. Her mind works differently than mine. That's why the change." She nods slowly.

"I think her little breakdown over her Azure proves your point. But you have to give her credit. She thinks of things that I couldn't even imagine. Her blend of modern and ancient culture beats out mine in any way. Don't you think she might be upset about this whole switch?"

"Maybe she is. Doesn't matter though. I'll do what it takes to win, anything. Feelings come in second." An unsettling feeling ran down her back.

"Are you at all concerned if one of us gets hurt in the process?" Danvers asks, a crease on her forehead. Viridian looks at her.

"I don't like killing. I hate it, actually. I will do whatever I can to avoid anyone's death, including Bela's. It's not how I operate."

"You seem to be operating on very different ideals, Viridian. But do not let them blind you." Viridian frowns. Had he lost sight of himself? No he didn't think so. At least he hoped not. He would win though. That much was certain, nothing would, or could stop that.


	13. Chapter 13: The Storm Before The Calm

Chase Part 13

Silvia, Viridian, and Danvers stand at the end of a hallway. Viridian peeks around the corner at the door he knew Bela to be behind. If he was right, both Bela and Azure would be standing there. Azure would help them take down Bela. The only reason he was helping him at all was because of that Silvia like girl. Once Viridian told him she was safe, he would turn on Bela. With the four of them the fight should be easy. Meanwhile, the other Azure would be handling Jade, who was sent by Bela to kill the President. Viridian smiled. He'd beaten Bela. It had been so easy.

"Alright let's hurry." He tells Silvia and Danvers.

Silvia nods. "Lead the way." Viridian moves carefully towards the door, extending his bo staff as he goes. When they're all by the door, he stops, and makes sure they're ready. Silvia pulls out a small dagger, in case of a fight. Danvers opens her hand, revealing a small black orb. They both nod simultaneously. Viridian pushes the door open and quickly enters. However, he stops short when he finds that the only person in the room is Bela. The other two come up short as well.

"Hello children. Surprised that it's just me?" He asks. He smirks at the look on Viridian and Silvia's faces. "You see, I knew you would have Azure stay back. You thought I'd keep my little toy with me, didn't you? So close, Viridian. But soon the president and that Azure you left with her will be dead. After all, he can't stop Jade and my little toy, can he?" Silvia's face drops.

"Azure is with him. Viridian, we need to go back." She turns to him, her eyes pleading. Danvers looks at her.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think you're right." Danvers says, agreeing with Silvia.

"Really Viridian. Will you do that? If you leave me now, you won't find me for sometime. The game will reset, and you'll be behind. You'll lose." Bela sneers happily. Viridian clenches his jaw.

"Azure can hold off our Azure and Jade. He'll have the president's guards as backup. We have to beat Bela now." He tells Silvia. Her eyes flicker in contemplation. Nothing felt right about this. But this needed to end.

"You're going to pay, Bela," Silvia growled out. Bela smiles slightly.

"If I must." He spreads his arms slightly, his smile still firmly in place. Viridian throws a set of three playing cards at Bela, and pulls out his bo staff. Danvers casts her magic sphere at Bela, hoping to encase him in a shroud of darkness. Silvia charges, blade at the ready. Bela seems to glow slightly with aura as he deflects the cards and catches Silvia's blade. He kicks her back, causing her to tumble backwards. Viridian runs forward and hits him four times in quick succession with his staff. Bela seems to barely register it before swinging around, back handing Viridian. Silvia stumbles as she recovers, only to see Viridian fly past her and into the wall. She grits her teeth. She loads a fire crystal into her sword and summons a fire circle around Bela, Danvers, and herself.

"Fire, my dear? Interesting." He shouts and slams his foot on the floor and it cracks under the force of it. Her eyes narrow.

"Bring it." She charges at him, slashing upwards. Fury fills her eyes. He rears back full force and punches straight into her strike. She grunts, trying to hold his position. As she does so, Danvers shoots a black orb at Bela, surrounding him and Silvia in darkness. Silvia activates her semblance, making Bela blind to the both of them. Viridian struggles to his feet and takes in the fire and black circle surrounding everyone. Inside it, Bela jumps and then crashes into the floor, finally causing the floor to collapse underneath his weight and forcing everyone to fall through it. Danvers creates a platform to lower herself to the ground, but Silvia has no such luck, crashing straight into the floor below. She struggles to even get up after she lands. Viridian manages to grab the edge of Danvers platform. However, Bela, who'd landed safely, grabs his foot and slams him onto the floor. Danvers launches herself off the platform, summoning a barrage of ghostly swords out of midair and sending them straight for Bela. He's forced back as them slam into him. Viridian rolls over and crawls to Silvia. Bela picks up a slab from the broken floor they'd crashed through and throws it at Danvers. She makes a silver shield to protect herself, however the impact of the blow sends her flying the rest of the distance to the ground. Silvia struggles to her hands and knees, seeing the carnage around her.

"Go invisible. Get behind him. I'll distract him." Viridian croaks.

"Y-You can't," Silvia manages with a rough cough.

"I'm pretty sure I can at least do that." Silvia watches him for a small moment before pushing herself off the ground, small grunts of pain riding her body. She uses her semblance, going invisible to only Bela. Viridian turns and looks at Bela, who was brushing off his suit. He turns and sees Viridian standing up.

"Well then. Are you ready to surrender?"

"Never! Mostly because I don't know what that word means. I'll look it up later, tell you what I find" Viridian says joking, sweat rolling down his neck.

"Distraction, uh?" He turns around and activates his semblance, sending out a pulse. Everyone else is blasted backwards, Silvia just manages to hold on by stabbing her sword into the ground. Viridian and Danvers aren't so fortunate and they both crash into walls behind them, with Viridian hitting the ground, unconscious. Bela looks around not seeing Silvia, so instead charges Danvers full tilt. Danvers struggles to her feet and launches dark orbs at him in hopes of surrounding him in unseeable darkness. He just charges straight ahead without looking, just nicking her shoulder with enough force to throw her backwards. Bela stops running and finding he still can't see perfectly he starts picking up ruble and throwing it randomly around. Danvers rolls on the ground, landing nearly unconscious as well. Only when Bela runs out of rubble does Silvia appear, her blade at his throat. Fire from her sword trickles against his skin, illuminating the fury in her eyes.

"Checkmate." Silvia growls.

"You think so? Look around you. If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." Bela smirks.

"What are you talking about?" She asks through gritted teeth. The grip on her blade tightens.

"You're the only one standing. Elsewhere, people you attempted to save and help are dead or dying. And we both know my aura hasn't been depleted enough that your blade kills me. Not yet." Silvia couldn't believe she was thinking this, but Bela is right. The two Azures were fighting, and something told her one of them wouldn't make it out alive.

"He'll make it out okay," she forces herself to say. "Our Azure is strong."

"But what about the other one? Hm?" She wants to reply, but stops short, her mouth agape. What would happen if Danvers' Azure died? She couldn't stand to lose either. Was one really going to die?

"You're a damn monster!" She screams.

"My dear, people aren't monsters. Only successful people and the tools they use to get where they need to go. Your Azure always has looked at himself as a monster, who can blame him given the carnage and horror he's produced. But he isn't a monster, he was a damaged kid that was turned into a tool by my brother and now me. You see, Azure really never had a choice in the matter. I'm successful and he's my tool for getting there." Smiling, he takes advantage of Silvia's shock and grabs her sword pulling it up, and he kicks her stomach. She stumbles back, her grip on her sword faltering. Silvia lets out a small growl.

"By being successful, you mean demoting humans to beings with no identity!" She screams.

"He stopped being a human when my brother got to him." He presses a button in his watch and he steps through the portal it created. It closes behind him.

"No!" She runs forward, only to skid to the floor when the portal disappears. She lets out a short yell in anger as a sting courses from her leg. She cut it in the fight.

Silence covers the room. Silvia is left the only one standing. For a few moments there isn't any movement. Finally Viridian stirs. Sitting up slightly, he coughs and falls again.

"Vir..." she stands, limping over to him. She falls next to him. "Viridian, stay with me."

"You're alive... we-we won?" he asks. She looks down, ashamed. "He got away in a portal... I-I'm sorry."

"Don't be, its my fault." He struggles to his feet. Viridian looks around at the rubble, then at the hole above them. "What do we do Silvia?" He asks. She follows his gaze to the hole in the ceiling.

"Danvers can-" She stops short. "Where's Danvers?"

"I don't know. When I passed out she was still kicking. Mostly." Silvia scans the floor until she finds an unconscious body.

"Oh no." Silvia hurries over to Danvers, her limp obvious. Viridian follows behind her.

"What happened to your leg?"

"It's probably a brush burn," she says as they walk. "I'll be fine." He gives her a look but doesn't say anything. He kneels next to Danvers and checks her pulse.

"She's alive."

"She's the only one who can do portals well. And she's unconscious." Silvia paces in small steps. "What are we going to do?"

"Can you wake her up?" She stops and kneels next to Viridian.

"I don't know. I doubt she's in a coma."

"We can't have much time." He stands and growls. He takes in Danvers gritting his teeth. "You'll have to do it. It's the only way."

"What if I mess up? I started this whole mess with the spell. I can't risk that."

"You started it and I made it worse. We have to fix our mistakes. If we'd just gone back instead of fighting him, we wouldn't be in this mess. Silvia, I lost the game, but I don't want you to lose our friends as well. You have to try." Silvia met Viridian's eyes, and suddenly her features softened. A small smile appeared on her face.

"That's the Viridian I know."

"There it is! Come on now. Let's hope to." Silvia nods and turns away from him.

"Stand back." She extends her arms and starts to chant the words of the spell, the blue portal opening up in front of her. She grits her teeth as she says the last few words, the portal forcing some energy out of her to open. He kneels down and lifts Danvers up. When the portal is open he gives Silvia a nod and steps through it. Silvia quickly grabs her sword from the floor before stepping through after Viridian, the portal closing off behind her.

They stand at the entrance of the safe house they'd left Azure guarding the President. The door had been knocked off the hinges. Two of the guards lay dead in the doorway. Silvia gasps at the scene. Were they too late?

"Get her somewhere safe," she tells Viridian. "I'm going in."

"You can't go in alone. Wait for me." Viridian says.

"And leave her alone when she's can't defend herself?"

"Silvia, you're hurt and everyone's inside. She'll be fine. I'll hide her. I'll be back. Don't. Move." He firmly tells her. He turns and quickly carries Danvers away. Silvia waits until he is out of view to scout the doorway. "Does he really think I'm not going to move?" She mutters to herself as she checks the pulse of the guards, nothing. Azure and Jade had been here. She looks inside, the darkness tempting her to explore its mysteries.

Viridian sets Danvers down panting heavily. She wasn't heavy, but that fight had drained him excessively. He glances back at where he'd left Silvia. She was most likely headed inside already. Hopefully the death and carnage would slow her down, give him enough time to get to the back entrance. They'd left ten guards not including Azure. They'd all be dead by now. He quickly starts running towards the rear of the house.

Silvia walks inside slowly, summoning a ball of light to guide her way. She winces as she sees the path of death leading the way towards the back rooms. She lets her light fade as another light source comes into view. She sticks to the walls, her hand on her claymore. Farther inside, a crash can be heard and then a scream. An explosion, and then silence. Suddenly the pipes in the house explode sending water everywhere. Silvia yanks the sword out of its hilt and activates her semblance. If there was a fight, she didn't want them to see her right away. One of the Azure's jumps through the hall using the walls to stay above it. He lands not far from it and uses his semblance to create a glowing blue shield that separates the water around him. Another Azure appears from the water and the two of them engage in a fight. It's very clear that the one who'd made the shield was the better fighter. Silvia narrows her eyes. That shield was all too familiar to her. That was her Azure. Relief spread through her at finally finding him. But at what cost? The two of the slash and stab quickly, avoiding each others blades or kicks as the hallway around them gets destroyed.

As the two fight the other Azure gets pushed back down the hall from the direction they'd come. At the end of the hall, some screams can be heard accompanied by laughter. Silvia rushes in past them, needing to know what's going on. Inside the room Bela's voice can be heard speaking.

"I hate to take you away from your food, Jade, but finish it. We need to leave. That goes for you as well, Azure." Her head pops up at Bela's voice. So this was where he had portaled to. She blocks the entrance before revealing herself, her sword ablaze. "You're not escaping me again, Bela." Behind her both Azures stop and in unison say:

"Silvia?"

"Surprise." She gives a small raise of her eyebrows. Bela sighs slightly.

"Jade, Azure, handle her."

"Letting your lackeys do the work for you, Bela?" She smirks. "I thought you were stronger than that. Guess I'm wrong." He chuckles slightly at her taunts.

"There's no need to fight myself." He grabs the whimpering President and goes out the back exit. Silvia's smirk fades as she bursts towards the exit, trying to stop Bela before it was too late. Jade grabs her shirt collar and throws her back laughing. The two Azures were fighting each other in the hall again.

"Hehe. Why would you run from me, my love?" Jade taunts.

"Clearly cause our 'love' is nonexistent," she replies with a disgusted growl.

"Sure it is sweetie."

"Now let go of me, and maybe I'll go easy on you."

"Please go easy!" He cackles tossing her away and drawing a rapier. He stands sideways, his sword held loosely in front of him, smirking. Silvia skids to a stop. She draws her sword in, taking its hilt in both her hands.

"Come at me, Copycat."

"Heh." Jade moves quickly stabbing at her neck. Taken off guard by his speed, she raises the blade up to block it, barely able to get it up in time. She pushes him off and swings at him. He spins back and holds his sword behind him. There's a pause where no one moves, then he dashes forward, stabbing at her sword hand. She dodges in time, slashing with a downward force. He blocks and using quick slashes with his rapier, redirects her sword away from him and cuts her side. She lets out a short yell as she feels the warm blood dripping out of the gash in her side. She bites down on the yell as she spins in the direction Jade redirected her and slashes that way.

Outside Viridian kneels behind a tree looking at Bela. He'd arrived just as Bela had snapped the President's neck. Viridian checked his cards, he definitely couldn't beat Bela by himself. He doubted he three of them could still do it. But maybe Azure could. Checking his cards again he nods. He would weaken Bela as much as he could. Peeking out from behind the tree he starts throwing cards into Bela (specially charged by his semblance). They explode against him and Bela stumbles slightly. Spinning around he looks for the target. Viridian jumps to a new tree and throws a few more. This time Bela catches one and sees what it is before it explodes in his face.

"Viridian!" He shouts. Turning slowly in a circle looking for him, more cards fly from the trees and explode against his skin, the only thing protecting him his massive aura.

Jade nocks aside her sword and kicks into the hallway. Silvia turns, she'd reentered the hallway where the Azures are fighting. Her's had the other one pinned to the wall. Jade walks slowly forward.

"Not looking to positive." Jade laughs.

"Azure!" She calls out over the roar of the explosion. If she couldn't beat Jade, maybe she could make Azure see reason. They both turn their heads to look at Silvia. Bela is heard calling for Jade, who stops and turns running out the back instead. What the hell was going on outside? Her eyes flicker between the door and the two Azures. Who should she go after? Azure throws a knife at her feet and turns his attention back to his target. He grabs another knife and raises it to slash his neck. In that moment Silvia decides what she would do. She stands her ground, knowing too well about Azure's exploding knives.

"Azure don't!" She pleads with him.

"I have to." He mutters.

"Honestly I feel like you don't have to." The other Azure says, a forced smile in place.

"No. I do."

"I know what Bela showed you, Azure," she says, hiding her fear. "He tortured their version of me. But we saved her. She's okay." Azure hesitates as more explosions can be heard from outside.

"She's safe?" Azure asks slowly. Silvia nods.

"We have her somewhere they can't get her. You don't have to fight for him anymore." He slowly backs up letting the other Azure drop to the ground.

"Thank god." Azure says, sighing in relief.

Bela knocks over the tree Viridian was in, he's forced to jump out of it. Rolling away from the tree, Viridian stands uneasily and pulls out his bo staff. Jade walks up behind him. Raising his sword, he stabs it Viridian, whos able to block it by spinning his staff. Backing up, Viridian tries to put distance between Jade and himself. Jade approaches slowly, making small jabs at Viridian. Viridian blocks each of these, but knowing it's only a matter of time, he hits away Jade's blade and kicks at his stomach. Jade jumps backwards, avoiding the foot. Viridian turns tail and runs into the trees, followed closely by Jade. He tosses cards over his shoulder, but Jade avoided each one. Viridian jumps into the trees and starts heading back towards the house. He jumps into the clearing, spraying as many cards as he can into the trees. They all explode, blowing apart countless trees and flinging Viridian towards Bela. Bella smiles and backhands Viridian away. He bounces a few times, his bo staff a few feet away from him. He turns to pick it up but Jade is standing there smiling.

"Alright, let get going." Azure says.

"Good idea." Silvia nods in agreement.

"Where's Viridian? Wasn't he with you?" He asks and she goes to speak but another explosion rattles the windows and the house they are in.

"I think that's him."

"Naturally." He sighs. Turning he looks at the other Azure. "Sorry man." He helps him up.

"No problem. How are we telling the difference? Should I go by my last name like Danvers?"

"Sure. Požar." Azure says with a smile. He leads the three of them out the back door. They are met by Bela standing with his arms behind his back, the president laying on the ground with a broken neck, and Jade stabbing Viridian through the right shoulder.

"Viridian!" Azure shouts.

Silvia stands speechless for a few moments, flashbacks of all the people she's lost fly through her mind. She runs forward in a blind fury, sword lit like an inferno. Požar follows her quickly. Jade deflects her first blow and kicks her cut. Then he stops Požar's knife with a glowing green shield, and stabs at his neck. Požar dodges it and kicks at him, however Jade spins out of the way. Silvia sends pillars of fire at Jade, the glow from the fire sparking something completely unreadable in her eyes.

"Oi!" Jade shouts backing up. Požar charges forward, punching at his face. Jade ducks and dodges backward from each successive punch or kick until he bumps into a tree.

"Oh deary. Cornered?" Požar laughs. Silvia sees the opportunity. She charges forward, the flicker of the flames dying down as the sword reaches for Jade's stomach. Jade smirks as Požar moves out of her way. He locks eyes with her and using his quick strikes, redirects her sword towards Požar, who's eyes widen in surprise. She can't move it enough it goes through his stomach, he gasps in pain. Jade laughs loudly and raises his sword again, but before he can do anything more, a knife flies through the air and sinks into his forehead. Azure is standing next to Viridian, his arm outstretched. Silvia pulls her sword out immediately, throwing it to the ground.

"Požar," she manages, her voice shaking. He blinks a few times, looking down at his stomach.

"Um. Ouch."

"Y-You're gonna be okay. We'll get you help." She says aloud, trying to convince herself this wasn't real.

"My dear. He is not alright at all. None of you are. I see that other girl isn't even here! You've lost at least two more. Care for the rest." Bela taunts. Azure steps forward.

"Silvia get them out of here. Do what you can. Come back when you can." Silvia turns to look at him.

"I just got you back. I'm not going to lose you again."

"This time Silvia, there's no tricks. You three fought him already, right? He's weak." He turns his full attention to Bela. "Don't worry I'll be fine."

For the first time, Silvia actually believes the words that come from his mouth. After all they had been through, and it took her this long to have that feeling. She shifts her gaze from Azure to Bela, knowing that Azure had the strength to beat him.

"I trust you," she says with as much confidence as she could muster. She goes over to help Viridian and Požar up off the ground.

Azure walks slowly until he's in front of Bela. The two stare at each other from across the backyard, a slight fire burning in the trees where Viridian had blown them apart.

"Well then, Azure, looks like it's just us. No more tricks to make. Still think you can beat me? I heard what happened with my brother. Do you want a repeat of that?" Bela taunts.

"That was four years ago. Plus you're weak. Silvia and Viridian fought you already." Azure shoots back.

"Please. Do you think I'd stay here if I thought I would lose?"

"Just because you think you can't die doesn't mean you actually can't."

"Same goes for you kid."

"I know I can die." Azure looks straight into Bela's eyes. "I've met death. It's about time I introduce the two of you!" With that last shout Azure charges, aiming and firing off several rounds. Bela summons his aura and deflects the shots. When Azure reaches him, he swings downward from over head. Azure blocks it with his blade, his feet sink a few inches into the ground. Grunting and pushing up, Azure kicks Bela's chest, barely flinching he grabs his leg and throws him into a tree. Grunting and standing up, Azure looks over and sees Bela's fist coming at his head. Azure spins out of the way and slashes at the back of his leg. Bela grunts slightly and backhands Azure away. Spinning through the air, Azure manages to get his blade in the ground and stop his momentum. He stands straight and pulls his sword out of the ground.

"So Bela, why haven't you finished me yet, uh?" Azure says smirking. Bela doesn't respond and charges instead. Azure holsters his gun and flips away and onto the house's roof. He pulls out a knife and throws it into Bela's shoulder, who shouts and pulls it out. He raises it throw it back at Azure when another knife hits it and they both explode in his face. Bela stumbles back and screams out in pain. Azure jumps down and axe kicks Bela's head. He falls face first into the ground, Azure rolling past him. Azure quickly turns and gets behind him, pulling out one last knife. He pulls Bela into a choke hold, knife pressed against his neck.

"Wait don't!" Bela shouts trying to activate his semblance.

"Ha! Don't even try. You're to weak to pull it off. It's pathetic, you know, struggling like this."

"I don't want to die! Please don't! Have mercy!"

"Good. I'm glad you don't want to die. It makes this sweeter. Weapons don't have mercy remember?" Azure whispers, Bela tries to get up but Azure slurs his throat first. Blood oozes out as he drops the body to floor. Standing, Azure takes in the large man. He bends down and searches his pockets finding a piece of paper. Looking at he smiles and puts it in own pocket. Azure turns away and walks in the direction Silvia and run off in. After a few minutes he comes up on them. She has Viridian and Danvers banged and leaning against trees. Pozar however is laying flat on his back, eyes closed. Silvia has her hands over his wound and is muttering a healing spell, tears running down her cheeks.

"He's gone Silvia." Azure says quietly.

"But-but he can't be!"

"He is, let's go home. We can bury him there."

"You can't die though!" She screams. Azure clenches his jaw tightly and kneels next to her.

"He's not me, Silvia."

"But he is! He's you from a different world and he's dead! If he can die so easily, so can you!"

"I can die that easily, we all can. Silvia, death hurts us all, but we can't let it stop us. In the future we just try harder to save them. We'll save them all, I'll save them all. So let's go home." Silvia looks into Azure's eyes and after a few seconds hesitation, nods in agreement.

 _Authors note: This is the second to last chapter! Which means we're almost there. If you've read this hole story thank you! It means a lot to everyone involved. There's always more to come in my other story. Please enjoy._


	14. Chapter 14: A False Calm (End)

Chase Part 14

Azure stands looking over his computer screens and smiles. It's finished. This past week had been hard for Silvia and Viridian. They'd sent Danvers back to her world, yet that didn't stop Silvia from being a bundle of nerves. Azure turns and heads to the stairs.

"A2ur3, start booting it up. I'll be back shortly." Azure says as he heads up the stairs and out into the bright morning light. Shielding his eyes, he heads towards Silvia's house. Hopefully she was doing better. When he gets there, he knocks on her door.

"Silvia!" After a few silent moments, Silvia finally opens up the door, but only a few inches to see who it was. When she recognizes it as Azure, she opens the door wide. Her eyes have faint dark circles under them, and her hair is in a mess of a ponytail.

"Hey, Azure," she greets, her voice rough.

"I came to see how you're doing." Azure says smiling.

"I'm doing fine." She gives him an almost forced smile. "Thanks for checking up." A crease forms on his forehead.

"You sure? Not stressing to much over Viridian, are you? He's fine now." Her smile fades as her facade is found out.

"It's not Viridian I'm stressed out about. Come on in." She moves out of the way for him. He goes inside and glances around her place, then back at her. "You want anything?" She asks, shutting the door behind him. "Tea, coffee, water?"

"I'm good. Thanks." Azure tells her. Silvia nods and moves across from him, leaning up against the counter of her kitchen, facing out into the living room. Her eyes seem distant.

"What's wrong Silvia? You aren't usually like this." He presses. She sighs.

"You really want to know, Azure?" She meets his eyes, and some broken part of her shines in her eyes.

"Yeah." She hesitates for a few moments. Then, as the words start to spill from her mouth, everything else just pours out.

"I killed Požar. I didn't want to, I never wanted to. Bela used me, Jade used me, and now Požar's gone because of my recklessness."

"No it wasn't you. It may have been your sword. But I saw what happened, that was Jade. He was the one that killed Požar." Azure says. She looks up at him.

"How do you know that? In my book, if you personally did the fatal injury, you killed them."

"In my far more experienced book, killing, real killing that is, has intention behind it. You never intended on killing Požar, but Bela and Jade did. They killed him, and if you hadn't been a bit sooner I would have. You didn't do anything wrong here." Tears prick at her eyes like daggers.

"He had so much left to do." She holds herself like she would lose herself if she did. Azure gives her a long look, she'd lost people before, he'd been with her when she had, having lost them with her, yet she seemed to fully grasp what that meant this time. That there was more to a life than what they meant to you.

"They always do, don't they? But don't worry, I'm going to fix everything. Everything will be fine soon." She looks up at him.

"What do you mean you're going to fix everything?" He smiles brightly.

"I'm going to make everything that was wrong, right. Don't worry anymore." Silvia raises an eyebrow.

"Do you care to elaborate?"

"You'll see soon." He goes over and lays a hand on her shoulder, his smile true and honest for the first time in years. It's warm and relaxing.

"Everything will be good." Silvia's face melts at his expression. She felt the honesty radiating off of him, and it made her break. She pulls him into a tight hug. He hugs her back tightly.

"Tell Viridian I'll be back later." He lets go and heads towards her door and heads off down the street. Silvia smiles ever so slightly and heads to find Viridian. When she arrives at his place, she knocks on his door.

"Who's there?"

"It's Silvia," she replies.

"Silvia who?" A smile can be heard in his tone. She rolls her eyes, her own smile appearing on her face.

"Silvia Danvers" Viridian opens the door and gives her a look.

"Worst knock knock joke ever. Just saying." Viridian says with a smirk.

"Glad to see you're doing better." She leans against the door frame, her arms crossed in front of her.

"Eh, a bit." He says pointing at the cast. "Major dent in the card tricks. What brings you to this part of town."

"I wanted to check up on you, see how you were doing. I'm sorry my magic couldn't help all the way with the healing."

"It's fine, it's fine. I'm more worried about you. Haven't seen you around as much since you know, everything." She shrugs.

"It's been hard on me, with Pozar and all." Silvia says looking at the ground. Viridian clenches his jaw.

"Yeah. It'll get better with time. I guess. I hope." he tells her. She looks down.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Have you seen Azure? He's been more holed up then you." Viridian asks. Silvia looks back up at him.

"Actually, he just came to see me. Wanted to see how I was doing."

"Really? So he's alright, uh? Mildly surprising."

"Yeah I know. We actually hugged."

"Hey that's good. We'll only get better together." She nods. "By the way, he wanted me to tell you something."

"Yeah?"

"He wanted me to tell you that he's going to fix everything."

"Fix... everything?" Viridian says. His tone coming out tense.

"Yeah, and he was smiling when he said it. To be honest, that's the most truthful I've seen him."

"Did he say how he could fix everything?" She shrugs. "He never said." "It feels odd doesn't it?"

"A little bit, given that it's Azure."

"No no something's-" he stops and looks at Silvia, remembering her pain over the past week. "Actually you're right. This is, great. Can't wait to see what he's doing." He lies. Silvia smiles, her demeanor changing.

"I can't either. Hopefully everything can change." Viridian examines her and puts on a smile.

"Hopefully." He repeats.

"If you need anything, you know where I am." Silvia says. She waves and heads back to her apartment.

"Yeah." He mutters to himself. Something's wrong. Azure smiled? He needs to go see what he's planning. He quickly grabs his blazer and throws it on as best he can over his arm. He runs out his door, kicking it closed behind him and runs full tilt towards Azure's house. He skids to a stop in front of the door and knocks on it. He stands, panting for a few moments before Azure finally opens the door.

"Viridian?" Azure says surprised.

"What are you doing?" Viridian asks.

"What do you mean?"

"Silvia told me you were going to 'fix everything' what does that mean?"

"I have a plan to fix everything that's ever gone wrong."

"How?"

"I'll show you." Azure says, stepping back and letting Viridian in. He leads him down into his basement where there's a huge set up of computers. In the middle of the room, a machine sits there, a blue energy courses through it.

"What is that?"

"It's a machine."

"No shit Sherlock. I meant what does it do?"

"It's what's going to fix everything." Azure says smiling.

"How?" Viridian asks, his voice showing how on edge he is.

"I've calibrated it to take certain parts of certain worlds and combine them into one single world. A perfect world where no one ever died and none of us had to ever experienced this pain that we're feeling now."

"A perfect world? Azure, people dying is normal. I thought you of all people would understand that!"

"I understand that it's normal here! But we live in a shit world. So I'll make a new one, where the people you and me and everyone else loved are still alive. Death isn't good! So I'll take it away!"

"But what about the other parts of those worlds, the worlds you don't use. What'll happen to them?"

"They'll be destroyed."

"That's wrong!"

"How can you tell me this is wrong? I'm saving everyone! Everyone! They didn't have to die! And soon, they won't have. I'll have saved them!" Azure shouts.

"Azure can't you see this is wrong?! You'll destroy so many worlds! So many people will die." Viridian cries.

"But they won't! No one will! They'll be there. In my world where all the good people are, my friends... my family. They'll be alive. And all those people who I killed and they didn't have to, they'll be there, too. It's a perfect world."

"There's no such thing! You've spent your whole life trying to save everyone, fighting these people who destroyed your life. But you never saw that your worst enemy was yourself. In your desire to save everyone, you'll kill them all. There's millions of worlds you'll destroy when you don't use them! Each one different with different people!"

"But a version of them will live on!" Azure shouts.

"And what about the rest of the versions? Each one is important! You aren't saving anyone! You're just killing them!"

"NO! I'M SAVING THEM!"

"YOU ARE THE BAD GUY!" Viridian screams at Azure. Azure steps back and grits his teeth.

"Take it back."

"No."

"Take. It. Back."

"I won't!" Viridian shouts. Azure grabs Viridian and pins himself against a wall.

"I'm saving them! I'll be a hero. Don't you get it? Everyone is dead. Too many of my friends. I've lost them all. I couldn't save them then. But I will now. I have to. It's the only way."

"To do what? Will you be happy? No. Azure, you want to be a hero. Yet you've spent your entire life killing because it's all you know. You think by saving everyone you've lost you can fix it. It won't work. You'll just end up destroying countless worlds."

"It has to work." Azure drops Viridian and backs up slowly before sitting down hard. "I can barely remember them, you know. My family, that is. Their faces have become so blurry, I just... I just wanted to save them. To see them. To see everyone. I thought going to a world where they lived I would be happy. But you're right, I was a nobody there. I wanted to be a hero and have them see me that way, but I couldn't find a world like that. So I decided I'd make one, and at the same time I'd save everyone else." Azure looks back at the machine, a single tear in his eye. "It won't work, will it? No one will be happy, the world will be a bunch of pieces of what I want forced together in a way that doesn't work. It'll die itself. And then there will be nothing."

"Azure, this worlds the only one we really have, you and Silvia have to learn how to live here."

"I wanted to be happy." Azure says looking over at Viridian.

"I know." Viridian says. Azure struggles to his feet and walks over to the machine and stairs at hit. Azure reaches out and hesitates. "Azure?" Azure hits a button and turns away.

"I shut it off. Nothing will happen."

"Thank god. I'm sorry Azure." Viridian says walking to the door.

"Viridian wait. Am I... am I a bad person?"

"I don't know. You spent your life killing yes, but you always killed people who were terrible people. I don't think we get to decide if we're good people. I think the people 100 years from now do. The ones who talk about what we did. And you've saved so many people in your life. I think you'll be remembered as a hero. Yet none of that matters if you can't accept yourself as one. You need to let go of the past, stop letting it control you, control what you do. Instead, you should control what you do. Focus on the future. I'm sure some power crazy guy will pop up soon. We'll need you to help us. But Azure you can never save everyone. Stop trying to." Viridian smiles at Azure who returns the smile as Viridian walks out, before he collapses back into his chair.

Azure stands in front of Silvia's door looking at it. He'd been standing there for forty-five minutes, yet he couldn't bring himself to knock. He'd promised her he'd fix everything. But here he was. The world was broken. Inside, Silvia is making dinner when she feels some weird presence at her door. She doesn't know what to make of it. Putting aside her food, she heads to her door and peeks out of the hole. Azure glances at the window when he sees it move, and sees Silvia. He doesn't move though. Just stands there. Silvia registers his blank expression and immediately knows that something is wrong. She moves from the hole and opens up the door.

"Hey."

"I-" he stops and his eyes shift around, never really settling on anything. "I couldn't fix anything."

"What do you mean you couldn't fix anything?" Silvia asks. He looks up at her.

"I told you I could fix everything. But I was wrong."

"What changed?" She asks, meeting his eyes.

"Viridian... he came and saw everything. Told me what I was doing was wrong." He looks straight at her now, almost pleading with her. "I thought I was going to save everyone who's died! My parents! Our friends! Arthur's kids! But in reality I'd just kill them all. Again." Silvia pauses for a few moments. In her over four years of knowing Azure, she'd never seen him in this state of mind. Now that she did, it was overwhelming. She steps closer to him.

"Azure." Her voice was soft, trying to comfort whatever fears Azure felt.

"I would've done it too. Even after everything he said to me, I almost did it. I'm not a monster or a weapon. I know that now. But I'm not whole either. There's something wrong with me."

"There's something wrong with all of us." She starts, slowly reaching for his hand. "I should know." He pulls his hand away slightly.

"I was doing it for you though. Just as much as for myself. You're why I hesitated." She retracts her hand, feeling a tinge of pain at his response.

"Why? I thought you gave up on me. After what I did to you, how I hurt you."

"I told you. I was going to fix everything."

Her eyes flicker with a small light of hope. "You wanted to fix stuff with me, as well as yourself?"

"Yes. I wanted the perfect world. Silvia you mean... a lot to me. And I think I mean a lot to you, too. But we just throw ourselves into danger instead of being there for each other. It's toxic, what we're doing. We'll get more people hurt with what we're doing." She blinks. This is what she wanted to hear this entire time, but it wasn't at the same time.

"We can change that," she offers. "It doesn't have to be like this forever, Azure. We don't need a machine to change our world. Maybe what we need is each other." Silvia says holding her hand out.

"Yeah. Yeah you're right. But I can't now, when I left all that time ago I left because I was in a horrible mind frame. I never meant to see you again. This time I'm leaving because we're both in the wrong place, but the biggest difference is, I'm definitely going to see you again. And soon." She looks down, almost as if hiding something in her eyes. It was happening again. Azure was leaving again. But would he really come back like he said he would? She thought back to what she told him as he fought Bela, and looks back up at him.

"I... You're right." As painful as the words were to say, she knew it was the only thing she could do. He looks at her for a second then reaches down to his belt and pulls out his gun and holds it out for her.

"Keep it safe for me, will you?" Silvia looks up at him, then down to his gun. Carefully, she takes it into her hands.

"You know I will."

"Thank you. I'm sorry Silvia. Protect the city."

"Don't be sorry." She gives him a small smile, with a trace of sadness lost in there. He hesitates then lightly grips her shoulder for a second before turning away slowly. She watches him leave for a few seconds before speaking up.

"Azure," she says. He stops and turns.

"Yeah?"

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do." She smiles, just like the two of them were back in Beacon all those years ago. Back when she fell for him. He chuckles slightly.

"And don't do anything I would do." She laughed silently to herself.

"That's a lot of things."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah. I do."

"See you around Silv."

"See ya, Blue." Azure gives her one last smile over his shoulder before heading down the street away from her house. Silvia watches him leave, the smile fading from her face. Her eyes leave him as they look down at his gun. Azure's gun, the one he always carried with him. She knew right there that he would come back. Her grip on the handle tightens as she turns around. With a single movement, she heads back inside, not looking back for the boy in blue.

Epilogue: Viridian

I know what you're thinking, why leave? Azure and Silvia finally told each other how they feel. The thing is they aren't ready for what that really means. Silvia's gone her whole life fighting to be her own self, but when it comes to Azure, she throws that out the window and does anything to save him. As for Azure he would kill an entire room full of people (as long as they were, in his eyes, bad) to save anyone he knows. But Silvia? As shown, he'd blow up the universe. These guys really need to chill out.

So Silvia's protecting Vale, it needs it still, after Cinder got to it. She'll do a good job. And I'll help. I always do. This time though, I'll let her be in charge. I'll stick to playing internet chess or something instead of some sort of game of death with a maniac.

As for Azure, he'll be on his own for awhile. Traveling the countryside and saving villages or something like that.

I know I know, you've been reading about Azure for a long time (if you've read all of his stories) and he always seems to be going through the same problem. "Is he a monster?" That's the question that always haunts him. He's been alone most of his life. Trained to be what was used for these past few days, a weapon, a tool. He was molded to be a monster. And even though he's not a monster and he knows that, I don't think he'll ever stop killing. He's been doing it for too long, and while I don't approve of killing, I'll say this for him: he only kills those who are truly evil. Because he wants be a hero, the hero. But he doesn't know how. Not yet. I think that's part of why he's leaving. To find out how to be that hero.


End file.
